The contractor consortium comprising Hakkers, De Klerk and Van Oord has
delivered a new tug quay with twelve berths and shore power facilities. To
facilitate this, the Yangtze Canal in the Port of Rotterdam was widened by 500
metres along its southern side. The contractor consortium has now commenced
work on the second phase of the project: the construction of 1,450 metres of
quay wall with 20 new inland shipping berths, including shore power
facilities. Van Oord said that some of
the largest container vessels sail through the Yangtze Canal to and from the
APMT II and RWG terminals in the Prinses Amaliahaven. Both terminals are
currently expanding their capacity.
As a result, traffic in the Yangtze Canal is expected to increase
significantly in the near future, making it necessary to create additional
space for the safe passage of increasingly larger vessels. To achieve this, the
navigational channel (at seabed level) of the Yangtze Canal will be widened
along its entire length over the coming years.
Van Oord said that once the project has been completed, the Yangtze
Canal – and therefore access to the Maasvlakte – will be ready to safely and
efficiently accommodate the next generation of container vessels currently
under development.