Rostock intermodal transport terminal completed

The Port of Rostock has completed conversion of its intermodal transport terminal allowing the German port to keep pace with the delicate balance of changing transport options

Like any other port, Rostock has to provide an effective interface between goods arriving and leaving the port, ensuring the facilities reflect demands of the various modes of transport typically road, rail and sea. Since May 2012 the Port Development Company has been converting the intermodal transport terminal south of pier 1, in cooperation with the regional subsidiary of STRABAG AG who have been responsible for the civil engineering works and track construction. Bremen based Kocks Kranes were responsible for building the new gantry cranes: a particular challenge for all involved was carrying out the work without interrupting day-to-day business at the terminal. A computerised slot administration system was set up to organize handling in a time and energy saving manner.

The upgrade of the handling terminal for rail, road and seaborne traffic covered an area of around 30,000m2. In preparation for the works, by June 2012 two ramps and two railway tracks had already been demolished along with work to extend and move additional rails.

In addition to three new tracks and the southern craneway girder, the entire southern handling areas were newly built. Up until the end of 2012, a total of €10m was invested in this work alone. During 2013, construction of the northern craneway girder and completion and assembly of the first gantry crane was achieved. Ulrich Bauermeister, managing director of Rostock Port Development Company stated: “The first crane was commissioned in December 2013. Now that the second crane has passed its acceptance tests in April 2014 the mobile handling technology by means of so-called reach stackers may be phased out, which will happen at the end of May after a transition period. The conversion has allowed up to double the handling capacity to more than 140,000 units per year”.

With completion of construction work, three additional tracks are available for handling traffic. The two new gantry cranes serve five tracks, both able to drive around curves in the track. Each crane weighs in at 500 tonnes with a height of 35m and a spread of 76.5m, overall investment for the project at Rostock stated as €17m.

Conversion of the intermodal transport terminal received a 70% subsidy from the Federal Railway Authority, supplemented by another €3.3m of subsidies from the European Commission under the Motorways of the Sea project ‘Green Bridge on Nordic Corridor’ (Trans-European Networks). Remaining costs were covered by the Port Development Company. There are 35 weekly intermodal transport train services from the terminal, running to and from: Verona (12), Hamburg (6), Karlsruhe (6), Brno (4), Novara (3), Domodossola (2) and Wels (2).