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Chus Heredia
Monday, 29 July 2024, 18:12
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The Spanish ministry of ecological transition is to give environmental approval in the coming weeks to the infill project to create a new quay, number 8, in the port of Malaga.
The objective is to ensure that Malaga is not left behind in terms of the demands of the current maritime freight market. Nowadays most shippers of bulk goods are increasingly demanding more capacity from ports to accommodate mega-ships to keep down freight costs. This has been confirmed to SUR by the president of Malaga's port authority, Carlos Rubio, who regrets that a simplified procedure that, in principle, should have taken about three months, has now been dragging on for a year and a half. "It seems that it is now only a matter of weeks before they send it through to us," he stated.
"This is the project that opens up access to large cargo ships weighing more than 50,000 tonnes. It will allow us to remain competitive in a maritime freight market that is becoming increasingly super-sized by the day. Not having the right infrastructure in place would mean a strong risk of being left out of the main shipping routes, losing competitiveness," said Rubio.
It is a quay that will reinforce the activity of Quay 9, which provides docking for containers. Moreover, according to the environmental project drawn up by the Amper Proes Group and Estudio 7, the completed quay will be able to handle 91% (4,714 ships worldwide) of the bulk carriers operating around the world.
The aim is to achieve a dredging level of 15.6 metres, which would allow ships with a draught (depth below the waterline) of up to 13.5 metres to operate. To achieve this, 200,000 cubic metres of sand would have to be extracted from the seabed of the port. This is deemed the most viable course of action to achieve this.
The work proposed as the second option would have meant achieving 96% coverage in this market. However, this would have meant much more dredging, 310,000 cubic metres to be precise, and this was not considered worth the effort for the chance of gaining barely 275 more cargo ships. For this scenario the depth would have required dredging down to 16.2 metres deep for an operational, floating level of 14 metres.
The third option to be analysed entailed the 'do nothing' approach. If things were left as they are the coverage would only stand at 60%, just 3,098 of the world's cargo ships. By going for option one, therefore, the Port of Malaga improves its capacity to handle the really big boys in shipping by 31%.
It is worth noting that the project proposal was submitted to the relevant ministry on 31 January last year. Then, three months later, according to the analysis of that application by this newspaper, it was submitted for consultation, which involved more than twenty institutions and groups related to the environment, the sea, urban planning and water, among others.
This will be a new area covering some five hectares. The entire project will be carried out entirely within the port area and the only likely impacts identified will occur during the construction process, according to the submitted planning documents. The planned work includes, on the one hand, extending the existing Quay 9, which will give rise to the creation of the future Quay 8, located between quays 7 and 9 (used for container ships). The other aspect to the project is the building of a large, level, multi-purpose esplanade by filling in the current fishing dock.
"The future quay will have two quay walls with one opening between them, the first one corresponding to an extension branching from Quay 9 for a total length of 87.14m, and a second wall that butts up to the current Quay 7 for a total length of 276.65m," as stated in the project application document.
The idea for Quay 8 is to be able to serve fleets of Panamax-type bulk cargo ships (so called because their size means they can just pass through the Panama Canal) with a draught of up to 14 metres when fully loaded. At the northern end of the future Quay 8 a 42.86m-wide ro-ro dock is in place (roll-on roll-off ships carrying all-wheeled cargo and vehicles such as cars, trailers, etc.). This will also serve ro-ro and ro-pax (ro-ro passenger vessels) traffic from Tangiers.
The connection with the existing Quay 7 is made by means of a piloted platform without affecting the existing quay. The construction of Quay 8 connecting the existing piers 7 and 9 requires prior demolition of the north and south breakwaters of the fishing dock, as well as part of the Poniente dock.
"All the landfill, dredging and dumping of materials (in the immediate vicinity of the port in sites already well known to the tech team in charge) comply with all the relevant environmental regulations and take into account the quality of the materials, the monitoring of emissions, air quality... Furthermore, two landfill areas have been proposed without going into protected areas or areas intended for other uses such as fishing or shellfish production," say the project application papers.
The possible effects during the clearing and building stages are temporary alterations to air quality, soil, sediment and water. These are to be expected with the emission of gases from the machinery, accidental spills and making the surrounding waters more turbid during dredging (both inside the port and in the dumping area). There is also the generation of noise within the port and dumping-ground areas, plus interruptions to port traffic and traffic on nearby city roads.
In view of all these data, the project report concludes that adapting the Port of Malaga to the global mega-cargo maritime freight market is profitable from both an economic and environmental point of view.
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