Elbe port all rounder heads for completion

The second stage expansion will add universal handling to existing new bulk business.

The ElbePort Wittenberge (EWP) was established last year to establish a high capacity, multi-purpose Elbe facility between Hamburg and Berlin. Its first pier and berth facility for inland ships, a 270 ton steel structure for liquid bulk and grain, has been in operation since last December. It is served by a 240m pipeline resting on 47 piles and handling 150 tons/hour.

Ramming for a second multi-purpose berth and pier began in August last year and work on a 400 ton capacity heavy lift steel platform started in spring and is due for completion in the first quarter of 2011. The platform is 16m by 24m and 900 tons of steel were being used in its construction. It will handle containers as well as conventional and bulk cargo.

Due for finishing at the same time is a rail system comprising about 3,000m of track and linked to the national network. Running past both berths and with a branch arm into the centre of the stowage areas, it will have five tracks. Plans are to extend it in 650m stages.

The port’s 260,000 sq/m parking and stowage area, where work has also begun, is due for operation at the same time as the rail facility. It will house containers, project cargo, breakbulk and bulk.

Port MD Eckhardt Stübner said the EWP had a big future and a lot of potential. Located at the junction of road, rail and waterway transport routes, it had space for commercial and industrial settlement, he added.

Port spokesman Gero Lange told MJ that further expansion was possible, including an enlargement of the port area and a third berth. The site was attractive to industry and the local economy, he declared.

By Tom Todd