Brunsbuettel completes berth renovation

New, stronger sheet piling has been erected in front of the existing central berth pier wall. The work, along about 200m of quayfront, began in the second half of 2012. Contractors were Tiefbau Unterweser (TAGU), a subsidiary of the Ludwig Freytag Group.

The new pier was inaugurated recently by local officials, among them Schleswig-Holstein state secretary Frank Naegele, and comes ten years after new sheet piling was installed along parts of Brunsbuettel Ports’ eastern Elbehafen berth frontage. The privately owned universal, industrial port, part of the Schramm logistics and shipping group, now boasts about 1,095m of quay, group spokesman Carsten Lorleberg told Maritime Journal.

The improvements to the central berth were designed to improve the port’s ability to handle bigger ships and keep pace with cargo handling which has risen dramatically in recent years and is expected to go on rising. The Elbehafen handles not only dry bulk cargo but also liquid and increasingly heavy breakbulk and project load cargo, including offshore wind turbine components. Its strategy, said Schramm Group MD Frank Schnabel, was to be able to “react flexibly to the changing demands of the market”.

Mr Schnabel also said the central berth work had been a bit like “open-heart surgery” because it had been undertaken while Elbe and Kiel Canal shipping operations had continued as normal. However Carsten Lorleberg reported that the dovetailing of building and handling had in fact taken place without complication and that port operations had not been disrupted.

Brunsbuettel Ports Elbehafen is at the southwestern end of the Kiel Canal where it joins the River Elbe, and is one of a trio of local Schramm Group ports. The others are the oil port and Ostermoor Port. Apart from its strategic advantage close to the Kiel Canal’s Brunsbuettel locks, the ports offers direct access to the North Sea, Baltic (via the Kiel Canal) and inland waterway network.

The Elbehafen, inaugurated as recently as 1968, handled a record 11.5m tonnes in 2012, an increase of 10% over 2011 and the Schramm Group is investing a total €20m in port improvements, of which the new pier wall is the biggest. The Schleswig-Holstein state government has contributed €1.35m towards the wall’s cost.

The total expansion programme in Brunsbuettel also involves new pier flagstones in the port and renovating quayside rail and crane track. It is for completion by autumn of next year. Already completed are construction of a new €5m administration building and new oil handling facilities costing more than €1m at the oil port.

By Tom Todd