The project has a favourable report from Puertos del Estado (State Ports)
The Port Authority of Valencia (PAV) is incorporating the prescriptions and recommendations formulated by the state organisation.
Until these suggestions from Puertos del Estado are included, it is not the definitive project that will be taken to the PAV Board of Directors.
The project has a base tender cost estimated at 448 million euros and an estimated completion period of 58 months for the works.
The proposal envisages the recovery and relocation of the lighthouse to an emblematic area close to the city.
The document can be consulted on the Valenciaport website
The Port Authority of Valencia (PAV) has published on its website the construction project for the container quay of the northern extension of the Port of Valencia so that it can be consulted by the public, in an exercise of maximum transparency. The project for the new northern container terminal has a favourable report from the State Ports Public Body (OPPE), which reports to the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (MITMA).
The OPPE document makes some final prescriptions and recommendations to the APV when approving the construction project of the north container terminal. Valenciaport is in the process of incorporating these provisions, so the project published on the website is not the final one.
The new container terminal will be located in the inland waters of the breakwater of the northern extension of the Port of Valencia, whose works were completed in 2012 with an investment of 204 million euros, of which 74 million were subsidised with European Cohesion Funds. The new terminal, to be built in inland waters, will have an estimated base tender budget of 448 million euros – including VAT – and will attract private investment of 1,021 million euros. According to the project – which is not yet definitive as it has yet to incorporate the indications of Puertos del Estado (State Ports) – the planned period for the execution of the works is 58 months.
The PAV envisages the recovery and transfer of the old lighthouse to an emblematic location close to the city yet to be designated, maintaining the structure, the tower and the lantern, among others. This is an infrastructure that has not been used for years, but which Valenciaport wants to incorporate in order to bring it closer to the residents of Valencia.
The new container terminal will continue to offer an optimal service to the Spanish economy and maintain the inter-oceanic character that guarantees connectivity with markets on five continents. This container terminal project will have a surface area of some 137 hectares and 1,970 metres of berthing line, with a capacity to hold 5 million containers. The new terminal will be the most environmentally advanced in the world, it will be fully electrified, which will minimise CO2 emissions by supplying electricity to ships or reducing current CO2 emissions by 98%, while creating new skilled jobs and boosting economic activity in the Valencian Community and in Spain.
You can access the preliminary draft at this link:
STATE PORTS ISSUED A FAVOURABLE REPORT FOR THE NEW CONTAINER TERMINAL AT THE PORT OF VALENCIA
Last March, the State Ports Public Body (OPPE), which reports to the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (MITMA), issued a favourable report “on the construction project for the container quay of the northern extension of the Port of Valencia”. The document, which was reported at the press conference of the Board of Directors on 25 March, can be consulted at this link.
In this document, OPPE made some final prescriptions and recommendations to the APV when approving the construction project for the northern container terminal to be taken to the Board of Directors. These suggestions are being incorporated by Valenciaport.
Thus, it indicates that the PAV, “as the promoter and substantive body of the action, must issue a certification that the project does not need to be submitted to a new environmental procedure, prior to its approval“, a usual requirement to the body promoting the works, which is requested from the port authorities. The project, as reflected by Puertos del Estado, includes all the necessary elements of judgement to issue said certification; therefore, the report received once again supports the criterion that a new environmental impact study is not necessary, not even an abbreviated one, as none of the assumptions of Law 21/2013 on environmental assessment are breached.
In its favourable report on the new terminal, Puertos del Estado states that the project must be completed with the characterisation of the materials to be dredged in the Port of Sagunto, an aspect that the PAV will present in the coming weeks. This observation refers to the carrying out of tests to analyse the seabed material to be dredged.
It also indicates that the consolidation times that appear in the project after the anchoring and filling of caissons and after the execution of the preloading on the new esplanade are considered minimum times and should be included in the specifications for the contracting of the works so that they can be considered by the bidders.
Puertos del Estado recommends “reconsidering the junction of the container quay, maintaining the level of the last caisson at -20 metres, the same as the rest of the quay and resolving the junction with a submerged concrete section that bridges the two-metre difference between the quay and the breakwater. In the initial project, the junction of the container quay (founded at -20m) with the outer breakwater is resolved by reducing the foundation level of the last caisson of the quay to -18 metres”.
Finally, it suggests concluding the trial on small container ships to ensure the operability of the terminal for the widest possible fleet of container ships.
The report of Puertos del Estado on the construction project of the container quay of the northern extension of the Port of Valencia, as well as the Technical Specifications for the construction variants of the works, has been ratified with the signature of its president, Álvaro Rodríguez Dapena; the director of Planning and Development of Puertos del Estado, Manuel Arana and the head of Infrastructures Projects of Puertos del Estado, Gonzalo Gómez.
A new EIS is not necessary
The report of the construction project analysed and approved by Puertos del Estado includes an annex called “Necessity of submission to the simplified environmental impact assessment procedure of the construction project of the container quay of the northern extension of the Port of Valencia” of December 2021 which concludes that the different modifications introduced in the project analysed by Puertos del Estado with respect to the original project environmentally assessed at the time “do not have effects on the environment, additional to those already considered in the aforementioned resolution; therefore none of the cases established in letter C (of the second section of article 7 of Law 21/2013 on environmental assessment” are present, which are:
- A significant increase in emissions into the atmosphere.
- A significant increase in discharges into public watercourses or onto the coastline.
- A significant increase in the generation of waste.
- A significant increase in the use of natural resources.
- An impact on Natura 2000 Network Protected Areas.
- A significant impact on cultural heritage.
- With regard to the “significant increase in atmospheric emissions”, the annex states that the project does not represent an increase in emissions with respect to that which has a favourable EIS, but on the contrary, it represents a reduction in emissions
- Regarding the “significant increase in discharges to public waterways or the coast”, it indicates that “in the case of the 2021 project, the effects of dispersion and sedimentation are practically negligible, so we can affirm that there will be no increase in the dispersion of fine materials”. On this point, Puertos del Estado adds that in the project for the new terminal “there will be no increase in fine materials affecting the protected areas located in the vicinity of the Port”.
- In relation to the hypothetical significant increase in the generation of waste, the annex states that “the project proposes the maximum use of the materials resulting from the demolitions to be carried out, the material from the dredging and the removal or dismantling of the existing installations. It is therefore concluded that there will be no increase in the generation of waste’.
- Regarding the concern about a possible significant increase in the use of natural resources, the document states that “the solution proposed in the project is based, as a relevant element, on the complete reuse of materials from the dismantling or demolition of existing infrastructures, which avoids the generation of waste, as well as minimising the need to extract new natural resources for this purpose. It is concluded that not only is there not a significant increase in the use of natural resources, but also a reduction in the amount of natural resources to be used”.
- With regard to the possible impact on Protected Spaces in the Natura 2000 Network, the annex eliminates any doubt as “a reduction in the impact on protected natural spaces is foreseen with the solution of the construction project compared to the previous one, which was analysed in the Environmental Impact Study (EIA)”.
- Finally, regarding the significant impact on cultural heritage, the report is equally conclusive: “There will be no variation in the impact on cultural heritage other than that established in the EIA of the Project with DIA of 2007. The annex to the construction project compiles the work carried out in this area to cover the need to determine that there is no effect on the underwater cultural heritage of the Valencian Community”.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEW TERMINAL
The container terminal planned for the inland waters of the northern extension of the Port of Valencia is a clear example of an infrastructure that combines sustainability and growth. On the one hand, the new terminal will be the most environmentally advanced in the world and, on the other hand, it will contribute to generating employment and wealth in the Valencian Community and Spain. This infrastructure will strengthen Valenciaport’s position in the Mediterranean and its work as a tractor company at the service of Spanish economic activity.
The new container terminal will involve an investment of close to 1,400 million euros: public and private. All of this will generate a significant economic impact both during the construction phase and when it comes into operation. According to the study on the impact of the new Container Terminal of the North Extension of the Port of Valencia, carried out by the Institute of Transport and Territory (ITRAT), in 2030, with the new terminal fully operational, the economic impact of the port of Valencia will represent in terms of added value 2.27% of the whole of the Valencian Community and employment will exceed 44,000 jobs, with an average salary of around 32,000 euros per annum. Overall, the port of Valencia will account for 2.2% of all employment in the Valencian Community.
In environmental terms, the new container terminal will be a smoke-free space, as it will minimise CO2 emissions by supplying electricity to cranes and yard machinery, and to container ships. The project presented by TIL/MSC to Valenciaport includes the electrification of 98% of the driving components and installations of the terminal; and in addition, 100% of the electricity will come from renewable sources, which in turn will imply a 98% reduction in CO2 emissions.
In this line, automation, the use of advanced traffic prediction systems, the design of the buildings with energy efficiency criteria, and the external lighting system with LED-type luminaires will minimise energy consumption. In its project, TIL makes an important commitment to intermodality and offers to develop a railway terminal equipped with six 1,000-metre-long tracks, with the capacity to move 305,000 TEUs/year by rail.
The study on the socio-economic impact of the northern container terminal can be consulted and/or downloaded in its entirety at: