The expansion in the western area of the Mussalo Harbour of the Port of HaminaKotka is part of the Eastern Baltic Hub project. The work included in the first stage of the project has made progress according to schedule and was completed at the end of 2019.
Project advanced as per schedule
The first stage of the project has covered the dredging of the harbour basin and the building of the breakwater, first part of the quay, and rail connection. Approximately 12 hectares of the land areas of this new D-area have been created from material dredged from the sea, mainly during 2016 and 2017. The soil filling has utilised, among other things, clean concrete and brick waste from two demolished schools and other soil material suited for filling, obtained from other sites of the City of Kotka. In addition to the basic infrastructure, the area has been provided with road connections and a rail connection of 1.2 kilometres. These were completed about a year ago. The terminal operations on the land area were taken into operative use in December 2018.
The hydraulic engineering work for the dredging of the harbour basin of 17 hectares, breakwater of 620 metres and D1 quay of 240 metres was launched in July 2018 and completed in the autumn of 2019. The work that lasted just under 18 months involved 1.3 million kilograms of reinforced steel, 8,500 cubic metres of concrete plus a harbour basin that enables a fairway with a draught of 15.3 metres to the quay.
Recycling and reclamation of soil material
As much of the quarried and dredged soil material as possible has been utilised in the construction of the area. During the first stage of the project, almost 1.4 million cubic metres of soil material has been handled and shifted without the transport causing disturbance outside the port area. The dredging of the harbour basin accounts for approx. 740,000 cubic metres of this. The dredged material has been utilised in the structures of the breakwater of the D-area and in the filling of the Palaslahti area in Mussalo, where the City of Kotka has made an area reservation for UPM’s biorefinery potentially to be located in that area.
The rest of the 1.4 million cubic metres, in other words approx. 660,000 cubic metres of soil material, has been quarried from the Jänskä and Hanskinmaa areas at the Mussalo Harbour, and suitable materials have also been utilised elsewhere in the building of the port area. All of the processed rock materials used at the port have been crushed from the rock reservoirs of the Mussalo industrial and port area in order to diminish inconvenience caused by transport. Moreover, 8,000 cubic metres of excess concrete from the gas pipe coating project by Wasco Coatings Finland Oy has been utilised and recycled in the building of noise protection on the western side of the D-area.
Eastern Baltic Hub is a project co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility of the European Union. The project improves sea and hinterland connections within the Mussalo Harbour area to enable the more efficient handling of larger vessels and cargo volumes.
