The selection of the contractor for the construction of the extension of the container terminal at the Port of Koper (Luka Koper), Slovenia, has been completed, marking the next stage of the project which in 2017 faced deadlock.
According to a statement released by the port, the selected company Kolektor, with partners Grafist and Adriaing, will start the preparatory works immediately after signing the contract, while the start of the works is expected in summer 2020.
“After the works have been completed, the container terminal will have a capacity of 1.3 million TEU annually, but with the optimization of the processes at the terminal, we shall increase this to 1.5 million TEU. This will ensure the long-term competitiveness of our most important terminal,” said Dimitrij Zadel, president of the management board of Luka Koper.
According to the statement, when Zadel took office in December 2017 he was facing deadlock on this project.
The deadlock was due to the concerns of the local community regarding the impact of the increase in the container terminal on the living conditions in the old part of the city, the project could not obtain the environmental permit.
Only the signing of an agreement on mitigation measures between the Luka Koper and the Municipality of Koper in July 2018 made it possible to obtain a building permit and to carry out the first phase of the project, ie the installation of test drilling piles.
The extension of Pier I involves the construction of additional 98.5m of quayside and 24.830 sqm of adjacent stacking areas.
The whole construction will rest on 770 steel piles, each 65m long. The quayside is expected to be completed until March 2021, while the stacking areas are to be finished by October 2022.
The total length of the container terminal quay will be extended to 695m. A public procurement is currently ongoing for the purchase of two latest-generation super post-panamax cranes.
Luka Koper has also obtained European funding for this investment, worth €45.6 million ($49.5 million), as part of the NAPA4CORE project (Connecting Europe Facility).
