{"id":3363,"date":"2019-05-12T07:04:41","date_gmt":"2019-05-12T05:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revistaitransporte.com\/?p=3363"},"modified":"2019-05-14T13:52:16","modified_gmt":"2019-05-14T11:52:16","slug":"room-for-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revistaitransporte.com\/room-for-giants\/","title":{"rendered":"Room for giants"},"content":{"rendered":"

In January 2018, one of the Port of Valencia\u2019s piers (the Pr\u00edncipe Felipe) received the largest container ship in its history: the MSC Eloane, a vessel with a length of 400 metres, draught of 16 metres and maximum capacity of 19,472 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit). The use of containers has revolutionised the transportation of freight on a global scale since they were first used in 1956 on a voyage between New York and Houston in a former World War II tanker that carried 58 containers on deck.<\/p>\n

The use of containers has revolutionised the transportation of goods on a global scale since they were first used in 1956 on a voyage between New York and Houston<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a trifling number compared to today\u2019s stratospheric figures: the Port of Valencia, ranked first in Spain for this type of traffic, beat its own record in 2018 with 5.1 million containers, which places it in 30th position in the world in a fiercely-competitive market. Shipping companies are building larger and larger vessels because the greater the volume of freight transported at one time, the lower the costs, according to the principle of economy of scale.<\/p>\n

Giants of the sea<\/h4>\n

In the 1950s, the capacity of the first container ships ranged from 500 to 800 TEU; today\u2019s Triple-E (economy of scale, energy efficient and environmentally improved<\/i>) ships belonging to the world\u2019s largest shipping company, Maersk, have a capacity for up to 19,000 TEU.<\/p>\n

This escalation in the size of ships has had global repercussions: they became too wide for the Panama Canal, requiring it to be enlarged to accommodate them, and the 20 or so ports around the world that have sufficient capacity to receive these ships have had to be adapted. The size of the cranes used to load and unload containers has also had to be increased, which in turn has led to the need to reinforce piers to support these structures, which can weigh between 1,600 and 1,800 tonnes.<\/p>\n

The Port of Valencia handled 5.1 million containers in 2018, making it the number one port in Spain for this kind of traffic<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is the case with the Port of Valencia, which in 2017 undertook a strategic project: to increase the water depth of the Levante Pier to 17 metres and reinforce its foundation to install new 100-foot cranes (30.4 metres, which refers to the distance between the legs of the structure), compared to the existing 50-foot cranes. Ineco, which began providing services to the Port Authority almost two decades ago, was this time responsible for technical assistance services involving the monitoring and supervision of the works and coordination of health and safety.<\/p>\n

This first project was followed by two others: works to increase the water depth of the central section of the Pr\u00edncipe Felipe Pier and the coastal transversal pier (currently in execution and also involving Ineco), both part of the southern expansion of the Port of Valencia and with the objective of reaching a water depth of 18 metres at the foot of the pier.<\/p>\n

The Levante Pier works in detail<\/h4>\n