Rudolph: Warnemünde cruise terminal is the calling card of tourism in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Both the building construction of the new cruise terminal at berth P8 at the shipyard basin as well as the construction of the shore-based electricity supply facility in Warnemünde started in the autumn of 2019. In recent years the cruise port of Warnemünde has grown into the main gate of entry to MecklenburgVorpommern for day trippers from abroad and is thus a calling card for the city, the federal state and Germany as a whole. A temporary tent structure terminal at berth P8 was no longer in keeping with the times. During this year’s cruise season 98,000 US citizens, 44,000 Brits, 23,000 Spaniards, 22,000 Canadians, 20,000 Italians, 12,000 Australians and 97,000 cruise travellers from 149 other nations went ashore in Rostock’s passenger port. Also, Warnemünde has become one of the most important German ports for passengers embarking or disembarking. More than 180,000 cruise travellers, of which nearly 140,000 were Germans, started or ended their cruise in the passenger port at the mouth of river Warnow only this year.
„Cruise tourism is an indispensable part of the growing tourist industry in our federal state and it thus sustainably strengthens the tourism market in the German north-east. To enable Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as an attractive holiday destination to continue to successfully look after the well-being of cruise tourists it is indispensable to improve the port infrastructure in a forward-looking and sustainable manner. That is why the city and the federal state are cooperating on the project in Rostock-Warnemünde. Investments continue with the support of the Ministry of Economics“, said the Undersecretary in the Ministry of Economics, Labour and Health, Dr. Stefan Rudolph in Rostock on Thursday. Undersecretary Dr. Rudolph handed over a notice of appropriation of funding to the city of Rostock for the extension of the cruise terminal.
Building construction on the cruise terminal begins
During the 2018/2019 winter half-year the deep foundation and the concrete work were done for the foundation slab of the cruise terminal and the shorebased electricity supply facility at berth P8 of the Warnemünde cruise terminal. Now the building construction of the terminal begins. „The start of construction of the new cruise terminal and the shore-based electricity supply facility mark an important step in making the port viable for the future and sustainable. We enjoy being a partner and supporting the development of Warnemünde”, affirms Felix Eichhorn, president of AIDA Cruises.
In order to improve the quality and safety of cruise shipping in Warnemünde the federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock and ROSTOCK PORT are investing more than 15 million Euro in the newbuilding of an additional passenger and service terminal building at berth P8. The complex of buildings with a length of 186 meters and a width of 30 meters is to be opened for the start of the cruise season in the spring of 2020”, states Jens A. Scharner, managing director of the cruise port Rostock-Warnemünde.
More comfort for travellers – Ministry of Economics supports extension of the Information and Organisation Centre for Maritime Tourism
Work is already in progress on the steel structure for the roof and the building. For this purpose about 580 tonnes of sectional steel for the supports and roof trusses are being assembled since last week. In the coming months the roof will be covered with 2100 square meters of so-called trapezoidal sheets. Just like the Warnemünde Cruise Center at berth 7 the building at berth 8 will also be given a safety glass facade; the total area is 1,900 square meters. The „Warnemünde Cruise Center 8“ (WCC8) has a floor area of 2,200 square meters and the two-storey service building belonging to it has 490 square meters of floor space on each floor. The 2980 square meter ground slab rests on 556 bored reinforced concrete piles which were placed in the ground to a depth of eleven meters last winter. Around 1,600 cubic meters of concrete, 900 tonnes of reinforcing and sectional steel, 2,100 square meters of trapezoidal sheets and 1,900 square meters of glass will be used in the construction of the new cruise terminal. The majority of the construction companies involved in the project come from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The WCC8 was designed by the Rostock architects Bastmann & Zavracky. The project engineering consultant Inros Lackner from Rostock is in charge of the structural engineering and building supervision. The building services engineering was planned by the engineering consultants Hildebrandt & Kindt and IBE Mahnke & Schaarschmidt from Rostock.
ROSTOCK PORT is the client for this steel and glass construction and the service building. The new complex of buildings also requires a redesign of the port territory at Warnemünde passenger quay. This includes additional paving of areas, new road layouts and a partial redesign of exterior premises.
At the official commencement of construction Undersecretary Rudolph handed over to the city a notice of appropriation of funding for the investment project “Extension of the Information and Organisation Center for Maritime Tourism”. The facilities are to be used for passenger handling (check-in by the cruise companies), border control as well as baggage handling, among others. Since the number of passengers to be processed has steadily increased and the mobile tent solution that has so far stood at berth P8 is no longer sufficient the Information and Organisation Center for Maritime Tourism is to be extended. To this end a permanent terminal building with a base area of around 2,200 square meters as well as a two-storey service building are being constructed. Furthermore, parking facilities will be built for 20 cars and 17 coaches. The overall project is being implemented in two phases of construction. The first phase began in September 2018; now phase two starts. The total investment is more than Euro 15.1 million. The Ministry of Economics supports the project with funding from the joint Federal Government/Länder scheme for improving regional economic structures to the tune of around 13.6 million Euro.
On 1 May 2020 ROSTOCK PORT plans to have an open day at the WCC8 to mark the 60th anniversary of Rostock overseas port.
Environmentally friendly sockets for cruise liners
Rostock creates the conditions for environmentally friendly cruises. Already in the upcoming 2020 season cruise vessels in Warnemünde will be able to tap into a shore-based electricity supply and thus rely on environment-friendly and lowemission energy generation. “South-east of the commuter train station at Warnemünde shipyard one can already see earth deposits that indicate building work which will continue in the spring. Already in the 3rd quarter of the year cruise liners tied up at berths P7 and P8 of the passenger quay will be able to use environment-friendly electricity from the grid company of Rostock public utility with a total output of up to eight megavolt ampere (MVA)”, informs harbour captain Falk Zachau, head of the port and shipping authority of the Hanseatic and University City. In 2021 the capacity is to be extended to 20 MVA.
About one quarter of the ships calling at the passenger quay will initially be able to use this offer for technical reasons. “We hope that this percentage will quickly increase and that the shipping companies will upgrade their fleets in an ecofriendly manner”, says harbour captain Falk Zachau.
All in all about 20 million Euro are being invested in the facilities which consist of the shore-based electricity building, a mobile connection facility and the civil engineering for the necessary connecting infrastructure. The planning and building supervision has been entrusted to Inros Lackner SE Rostock. The shore-based electricity building with the converters and transformers is manufactured by the company Powercon from Hadsund (Denmark), the shore connection carts and terminal boxes are provided by Messrs. Stemmann from Lower Saxony. The civil engineering works were taken over by Groth & Co. from Rostock. It is planned to gradually extend the facility in the coming years.
Note:
Two photos are available for downloading and for free use from the address www.rostock.de/presse if you state the source (cf. below) or directly from the following links:
Shore connection cart rathaus.rostock.de/media/rostock_01.a.40.de/upload/Landanschlusswagen. png Copyright: Rostock Port and Shipping Authority
Visualisation of the shore-based electricity building at its maximum extension rathaus.rostock.de/media/rostock_01.a.40.de/upload/Landanschlussgebaeu de.png
Copyright: Rostock Port and Shipping Authority