The Valencian port has been one of the most important ports in the export-import scenario and the traffic of goods for a long time, and after many years of dedication and work finally has accomplished the expansion of it.
Once Valencia port is introduced let me explain what is the expansion and every aspect that surrounds it. The Valencia port is formed by Gandía, Sagunto and Valencia port, this last one is as i said one of the most important ports in the world and it's constantly increasing and improving the way it works, that's why this 2021 they have decided to carry out a big expansion of it facilities. This photo shows what and where the expansion is going to be made.
This expansion plan has been planned since 2001. In 2006 they started to get everything needed to start the process and, in 2007 the process was submitted to environmental control which it successfully passed.
This strategic plan determined that the port would orient its activity towards interoceanic container traffic, which is why it needed to undertake its expansion. The project included the creation of a new dock in the north of the port. It had 250 hectares with the mouth facing south, projected to have a 153-hectare container terminal.
The northern expansion consists of two phases. A first, which is the shelter, and a second, focused on the equipment and start-up of a new container terminal. The execution of the shelter works began in June 2008 and ended in October 2012. The total amount of these works amounted to 203.6 million, of which 74 were subsidized by the European Union. The uncertainty derived from the 2008 crisis caused the tender for the new terminal to be postponed.
Three years later the project was opened again and Valencia port tried to find new investors to carry out the expansion. In 2017 the project had a renewal because of how maritime transport had evolved. They made a new layout of the dock to adapt it to new needs: the design of the new vessels, which increased their capacity, from 11,000 TEU (containers) to 24,000, and the increase in the length of the docks to accommodate ships up to 420 meters in length.
In 2019 they decided to start to inform the people showing the plans and all the data involved in the process, including the 400 million euros given by the government. In total they have a subsidy of 1021 million euros, they expect to create 6.000 new job positions. But not everything is good, there always are barriers and problems that people put in your path to try to take you down, and in this case are the politics and environmental barriers.
Some Spanish political parties such as Compromís and Podemos had intensified their rejection of the project and demanded a reversal of the works carried out. The president of the employer's association, Salvador Navarro, demanded "less demagoguery" with the enlargement. A judicial appeal against the expansion has been announced by the Comissió Ciutat-Port, although it has not yet been presented. Compromís and Podemos are going to join this judicial process.
On the other hand we have environmental opposition. It is called comissió ciutat-port, formed by ecologists and people that think that this project is harmful for the environment. This group has taken strength and views because of some politics that use them as arguments to stop the port expansion. They maintain that the environmental study made by DIA in 2007 does not take into account several aspects that nowadays are important to our planet. But leaving their dreams and coming into reality, there are facts that says that this expansion is just as good at creating jobs as with the environment.
Source: Medio ambiente – Valenciaport
Something to take into account when saying that something is harmful for the environment is the data. Here is some data published by Europeans sources of Valencian port emissions and the carbon footprint. The activity of the Port of Valencia has grown by 42% from 2008 to 2019 and the reduction of CO2 has been reduced by 30% per tonne managed. The Port is also an international figure in terms of decarbonization port developments and strategies. They have recently partnered with the Port of Hamburg to develop hydrogen projects applied to the maritime sector.
The Port of Valencia is among the 15 most demanding ports in the world in the fight against climate change. It is committed to its Valenciaport 2030 strategy, zero emissions. This strategy establishes that in 2030 the port of Valencia is going to reduce its emissions to zero and to create and prove new and less polluting ways to transport goods and people. The expansion of the Port is an example of infrastructure that combines sustainability and growth. Regarding the environment, the new terminal has no possible competitor worldwide and economically it will be the best bet to be made from productors and import-export business.
Now leaving apart the environmental problem, we have to focus on the new railway expansion. The Valencian portuary authority has created its own unit to manage the train traffic in the interior of Valencia and the nearbys and works with investment plans between Sagunto´s and Valencia´s port with a value of 238 million dollars. Valencian authority says: “For Valenciaport, the train is basic and fundamental because for years we have been strengthening ourselves as a reference port in the Mediterranean by adopting the train as the basis of intermodality. The railroad is key in our present and future strategy as it allows us to reduce costs in the logistics chain, improve the services we offer at the terminals and take loads off the road to upload them to the railways”.
Actually, the train transport is far away from land transport, nowadays the railways traffic represents only 4% of the total goods traffic in Spain and Valencia port has 11% of goods traffic by train. But this data does not say anything because as i see it it has a lot of potential, is a method much more secure and quick than land traffic and with a bit of effort and some investments made by some business it can have a very quick ascent on the goods traffic total graphic in Spain and, specifically in Valencia.
The main actions that they are going to take are:
- Continue with the remodeling of the Príncipe Felipe dock track beach and its adaptation to the international gauge for 8.2 million euros.
- Remodeling of the railway network between Poniente and Costa docks): 45.4 million.
- Adaptation of the network to the UIC gauge between Muelle de Poniente and Muelle de Levante: 5.4 million euros
- Electrification of the roads of the northern network: 5 million.
- For the development of the Fuente de San Luis terminal: 15 million euros.
- Road and rail network access north terminal: 40 million euros.
- Other provisions on the Sagunto-Teruel-Zaragoza line (to be defined in collaboration with ADIF): 33 million euros (2 million are included for the adaptation of Cella's intermodal roads, to serve the airport and the Platea logistics area .
- Access road beach to Puerto de Sagunto: 3 million euros.
In conclusion I want to say that, even though the expansion is controversial in some ways and will be a discussion point in the future months, I think it will be a very good action taken by the port because it will increase and develop a lot of aspects that benefit our economy and society. Maybe this is a selfish opinion because me and my teammate both are going to work in the maritime sector but I think that every common sense person that watches the data and the money moved by the port will reach the same conclusion.
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