BTJ 3/2008 - Baltic Transport Journal

Maritime
Vuosaari project in its final stage
The return of the city
For ages ports gave rise to the development of
the cities always having a definite impact on
their economies.
Usually they were an integral part of the city centre being an
excellent job provider and an appealing location for businesses
and investment.
The Industrial Revolution, technical and technological
improvements, trade development and the change in
its pattern presented new challenges. The ports started to
expand beyond the city limits becoming more alienated from the city itself.
This process was uninterrupted till the mid-20th century when we could observe
new concepts in the port and city co-existence; one result was a new
demand for larger and specialized port terminals with an adequate capacity.
The old port areas returned to the city as business, cultural, and publiclike
new multifunctional districts. The city of Helsinki is an example of the
port-town metamorphosis benefiting both the harbour itself, industrial businesses
involved, and the city development as well.
The beginning
In the last years of the 20 th century the City Hall of Helsinki started a
project whose aim was to create a new highly specialized harbour in place of
the old one, located in the city centre. Only passenger, cruise, and ferry shipping
were to remain in the old port. The first step taken was the relocation
of the Ruoholahti harbour, a terminal which served as a discharging base
for imported coal for two main power plants: Samisaari and Hanasaari. The
Ruoholahti district is located roughly 2 km from the very centre of Helsinki,
and in the past the area was almost entirely dedicated for industrial functions.
Along with the city’s expansion, the coal port was beginning to be
18 | Baltic Transport Journal | 3/2008
“eaten up by the commercial and residential buildings” and could no longer
serve its functions without disturbing the local community. Ruoholahti was
not the only problem in the process of the city’s growth. In the vicinity of the
coal port, there were two other huge traffic port areas: Länsisatama (West
Harbour) and Sörnäinen (North Harbour).
The last decades have witnessed uninterrupted growth in container
shipments which has also had a definite influence on Helsinki with almost
30% of the entire import and export, approximately 10m tons of
cargo passing through the city. All of this led to a decision taken by the
City Council in 1996 to approve a plan for the construction of the Vuosaari
harbour, to where the cargo would be shifted.
The Vuosaari Harbour Project
The construction works started in January of 2003 and currently the
project is in its final stage of implementation. The whole harbour should
become operational before the end of the year. The total area of the port
will take up approximately 150 hectares of land, out of which 60% is to be
gained by filling in the sea (a total of about 700,000 cubic meters of material
will be dredged from the fairway and will be used, partly, for creating
artificial land in the suitable areas). The port will handle unitised cargo
only, i.e., goods transported in containers, trucks and trailers. The harbour
will have two 750-metre container quays and 15 ro-ro berths. There will
be no problem with shallow waters as the draught of the fairway leading
to the port will be 11 m after completion of the dredging works, allowing
even a large Panamax container vessel to berth and discharge. The port
will have direct connections to the entire Finnish main road and railway
network. The Harbour Road will give access to Ring Road III through a
1.6 km long tunnel. The length of the harbour railway will reach 19 km
and connect to the whole Finnish railway system. The Helsinki-Vantaa
airport will be directly accessible both by rail and road.