Port of Gothenburg expands
The Port of Gothenburg is set to expand with the construction of a new terminal at the outer port area. It is the largest expansion project at the port since the 1970s. The terminal will be built using dredging spoils and is expected to be completed at some point after 2020.
The Land and Environment Court has granted the Port of Gothenburg consent to build a new freight terminal beside the existing terminals.
The maximum draught for vessels calling at the terminal will be 11 metres. This means that traffic will probably take the form of intra-European freight transport – either as a final destination or to the major transshipment hubs in northern Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium for onward movement to various parts of the world.
It has still not been decided what type of goods the new terminal will handle – containers, rolling goods such as trailers and cars, passenger traffic or a combination of several types of freight.
The terminal will be run by an external operator in precisely the same way as the current freight terminals at the Port of Gothenburg.
The area will be 220,000 square metres, equivalent to 30 football pitches. The cost of the investment is expected to be in the region of one billion kronor.
The new terminal will be built using dredging spoils from maintenance dredging that is taking place throughout the port area. The spoils will be deposited in an embanked area in the bay at Arendal and will be made solid by being mixed with cement.
Once the new port area has been constructed, eelgrass will disappear from the seabed. Eelgrass is an important part of the marine ecosystem and acts as a nursery for several species of fish.
