The State of Lower Saxony and the Hanseatic City of Bremen joined forces in June 2002 to realise one of the largest infrastructure projects seen in North Germany in the last 50 years: JadeWeserPort at Wilhelmshaven will be Germany’s only deepwater terminal for super-large container ships. Operations are scheduled to start in 2011.
A terminal for next generation container ships
The JadeWeserPort deepwater container terminal is to be constructed on the west bank of the Inner Jade – part of the Jade estuary of the North Sea – approximately 9 km northeast of centre of Wilhelmshaven. Its location east of Voslapper Groden, between the ‘Niedersachsenbrücke’ (coal terminal) in the South and the WRG Pier facility to the North will make it an integral part of the port facilities of Wilhelmshaven.
The average distance to the WRG Pier and jetties to the North is around 2,200 m. The ideal location of the port was confirmed by nautical simulations. With a short approach channel of a length of 23 nm, the next generation of super-large vessels of well above 10,000 TEU with dimensions of up to 430 m in length, 58 m width and
drafts of up to 16.5 m will be able to call the port with a tideindependent access. A planned quay length of 1,725 m guarantees that four large container vessels together with feeder ships will be simultaneously served by way of 16 container bridges.
After completion, JadeWeserPort will be the most easterly deepwater port of the European North Range between Le Havre and Hamburg. Its annual turnover is predicted to be approximately 2.7 million TEU. It is anticipated that around 60 per cent of the overseas container turnover via the Wilhelmshaven main hub will comprise sea transit shipments within European distribution traffic to Scandinavian, EU Baltic state and Russian seaports. JadeWeserPort will be an essential key component of the trans-European ‘Motorways of the Seas’.
The terminal area of 130 ha is complemented by another 160 ha for logistics and port-oriented services, with a freight village also in the planning. Both, road and rail networks will offer a high capacity access; for road traffic, the German A 29 motorway ends at the port gates. The overall investment volume amounts to Euro 950 million. The EUROGATE group as port operator will invest €350 million into the port superstructure.
Current planning status
The realisation of the JadeWeserPort project has involved planning approval procedures in accordance with the German Waterway Act (WaStrG) and the German Mining Act (BBergG). Final approval was granted in accordance with the German Mining Act in September 2006 with immediate execution granted, effective November 2007. The plan approval order in accordance with the German Waterway Act was pronounced with immediate execution rights in March 2007.
The JadeWeserPort construction project as applied for in accordance with the German Waterway Act includes the following measures:
• Creation of a new terminal area:
• land reclamation with embankments
• construct quay, return and embankment walls
• Quayside transport connection:
• realign the Jade channel
• construct terminal access channels
• relocation of a leading light
• Landside transport connection:
• construct road access
• construct rail access
• securing the ‘Niedersachsenbrücke’
Tenders for the construction works for the terminal land areas including the quay and embankment walls were invited according to a European pre-qualification procedure in early January 2006. Bids received from approved bidding consortia were opened on 4 May 2006. The five approved consortia submitted not only their
principle proposals but offered also 400 specific proposals.
