New Rostock facility ups ferry clout

The new berth is on the east side of Pier 1 in Rostock’s Overseas Port. It will handle Scandlines’ two new 1,600 lane/m, 1,500 passenger superferries Berlin and Copenhagen. The 169m ships will call at two-hourly intervals and turn around inside just 15 minutes at a quay projection with a double deck ramp being built at Berth 54.

Scandlines MD Bengt Pihl said the newbuilds and the new 220m long facility would “nearly double transport capacity and remove the present seasonal bottlenecks on the Rostock-Gedser route.”

Some 143 steel reinforcing pipes of 2.24m diameter and up to 41.4m long, weighing 1,300 tons, have been driven and rocks laid at 12m across 11,000 m2 of sea bed to secure against ship erosion. The berth will boast stern loading ramps, a main deck bridge and two upper deck bridges of 850 tons total supported by a bridge portal 17m above the water surface.

Hydraulics engineering, including the double deck ramp deep foundation work, has already been completed by the construction company Bunte. The also completed steel gangway structure was built by a consortium grouping BPB Stahlbau, Bützow and SMV Stahl-Metallbau, Rerik.

The double-deck ramp from the Roßlau Shipyard was being delivered via the Elbe by year’s end. Hydraulic cylinders for the double-deck ramp are being built by Douce Hydro in France and the fully automatic mooring system by Cargotec MacGregor in Sweden. Overseeing the work for the Hafen-Entwicklungsgesellschaft Rostock is the Rostock firm of Inros Lackner.

The investment cost of €22m includes EU and local grants and the project has also meant reorganisation of other parts of the existing ferry terminal, costing a further €8m.

By Tom Todd