Kiel Terminal Coordination is Technical Masterpiece

Built to a tight deadline in just under six months, they also said coordinating the project had been ‘a technical masterpiece’.

Terminal owner and MD of the Port of Kiel operating company, Dirk Claus, said the Ostseekai terminal, directly on the Kiel Fjiord, ‘set new benchmarks for handling quality’. First ship to dock was 69,200gt AIDA Cruises flagship ‘AIDAdiva’.

The complete terminal boasts two berths of 360 and 285m on 10m of water and covers 40,000m2. The two storey terminal building boasts hydraulic moving walkways on two levels providing direct access to ships and is glazed throughout with some 2,600m2 of glass facading. The facility can handle ships turning round up to 3,000 passengers at a time.

Dirk Claus said the new facility had lifted all the previous restrictions on cruise ships. ‘From now on, even the world’s biggest cruise liners will be able to berth at a passenger terminal in Kiel’.

Officials said 5,350 tons of steel had been trucked in for the driving of 192 anchor and load bearing piles. A further 245,000m3 of dredged sand had been utilised as infill and more than 2,100m2 of surface area secured. A total 23 fenders and bollards were built.

Responsible for project planning and consultation were bpbp Butzke Planungsbüro, Seehafen Technikabteilung and AX5 architekten while Schnittger Architekten was in charge of construction. Those involved in construction and interiors included Köster, H.O. Schlüter, Steintech Ottens and A. Gabriel as well as the metal working concerns Zander Metallbau, Berke WMB Technik, H.H. Müller and Butzkies Stahlbau.

‘Coordinating the numerous construction projects was a technical masterpiece and a splendid achievement by the engineers’, said a port official.

By Tom Todd