Elbe fairway and other terminals, in port of Hamburg, experienced a challenge when AGFs, German large vessels, increased by 65%. That is why, the Hamburg Vessel Coordination Center (HVCC) is focusing on a fairway adjustment in order to make Elbe fairway easy-to-access.
Namely, after getting the green light, Ingo Egloff and Axel Mattern, Joint CEOs of Port of Hamburg Marketing highlighted that the fairway adjustment should be speedily implemented in order for the port to be easily accessed by the customers and vessels.
The deepening by around on metre will benefit the port since containerships will in the future be able to bring and take away around 1,300 TEU more cargo.
Moreover, the rise of AGFs highlighted the restrictions they are, up to now, facing, along the 120-kilometre stretch of the River Elbe between the estuary and the boundary of the Port of Hamburg, which must be observed.
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The year following, as part of the fairway adjustment of the Lower and Outer Elbe, widening of the fairway by 20 metres between Störbogen and Wedel will create extra capacity for ultra-large vessels and a simplification for traffic control of traffic arriving and departing.
Once it is completed at the end of 2019, a passing box between Wedel and Wittenbergen will bring to an end the ‘one-way traffic’ for ships with a combined width of more than 90 metres.
HPA and the pilots are collaborating with shipping companies on simulation studies. In order to achieve a real-life-study, these ships in the Port of Hamburg will be re-created in the simulator. All those involved in traffic control, shipping companies and terminals will learn crucial lessons from these simulator studies.
Business in the Port of Hamburg anticipates completion of the fairway adjustment in summer 2021.
The collaboration of port’s expansion between those responsible for traffic control in the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), the port and Elbe pilots, and the Hamburg Vessel Coordination Center (HVCC), should in future involve incorporation of ships and pilot stations in the German Bight in mobile data traffic.
Finally, port Captain, Jörg Pollmann, supported that owing to the increasing digitization of port traffic control, a ‘Port Traffic Center’ will ultimately ensure data flow and intelligent networking of all carriers and traffic flows, while allowing for infrastructure and logistics procedures.
