Hamburg pushes out boat for boxships

The port of Hamburg has reached the halfway mark in its most ambitious development since its post-war reconstruction. The scale of the CTA (Container Terminal Altenwerder) project ? including its 8650 million price tag and 20-year timetable ? is truly immense, and the outcome promises truly exceptional facilities for container shipping.

The construction of the new “Ballinkai” in Altenwerder, a small village of about 2,000 people on the southern arm of the river Elbe, has so far taken only three years, and the part of the terminal has now been able to open for business. But all the preparations, including the resettlement of the people of Altenwerder, have taken 20 years, dating back to the passage of the port enlargement law by the Senate of Hamburg in 1982.

The reclamation of an area of 200 ha to 7.5 metres above tidal plane of reference offered the unique chance to plan a terminal without any limitation. The sand, necessary to reclaim this area, was gained by dredging out the waterway to the new quay and the two large turning basins of about 500 metres in diameter.

With the first construction stage, which was finished last year, the terminal reached a capacity of 1.1 million TEU per year. When the final stage has been completed in late 2004 or early 2005, the capacity will be increased to 1.9 million TEU. To handle this number of standard containers the terminal will be equipped with 13 super post-panamax quay cranes to guarantee rapid loading and unloading of even the largest vessel.

To simplify handling of feeder vessels one small standard quay crane is installed with a lifting height of only 19.8 metres compared to 38.5 metres of the large super post-panamax cranes.

The transport between the quay and the container storage blocks will be provided by 60 unmanned, automatically guided diesel-hydraulic powered vehicles (AGV).

Container storage, operated automatically, is organised in 22 blocks, each with a pair of rail-mounted gantry cranes, one small inner crane and a large outer crane; thus they can pass each other. In this way every block can be served simultaneously by both cranes.

On the shore-side of the container storage are four lanes for truck handling with 86 transfer spaces.

The terminal rail yard consists of six parallel tracks for trains up to a length of 700 metres. Four gantry cranes with jibs on both sides and turning trolleys span all tracks, ensuring easy loading and unloading of the trains.

For the transport of containers between the 22 blocks and the rail yard the terminal will have its own 200 semi-trailers and 15 to 20 tractors.