| The Efficient Flow project funded from the Central Baltic Programme (EU) has reached its final stage. The objectives of the project, which has taken almost three years, included improved and swifter exchange of information between the different operators in the port, savings in time in port operations, shorter waiting times, more efficient use of resources, and savings in the consumption of ships’ fuel. The project has been carried out in partnership between the Swedish Maritime Administration (project leader), Satakunta University of Applied Sciences (SAMK), VTS Finland, and the Ports of Rauma and Gävle. Stakeholder groups that convened already in 2018 to assess needs and possibilities included Euroports in its role as a ships’ agent, Finnpilot as a piloting organisation, Alfons Håkans as a tug service operator and mooring service providers from the port of Rauma. The contract for the development of the software was awarded to Unikie Oy after a competitive bidding process. The Port Activity App produced as a result of the project has now been launched in the Port of Rauma. The application creates a basis for cooperation between key port operators. It produces real-time data to the port call operators, such as terminals, tugs, pilots, port authorities, mooring personnel and masters. After tests conducted with the cooperation partners had been completed, SAMK and Port of Rauma invited their most important stakeholder groups to a launching event in the port of Rauma. An opportunity to attend online was also provided to comment on the new application and contribute to its testing and further development. In addition to Port of Rauma and Satakunta University of Applied Sciences, attendees included e.g. ships’ agents, a tug service company, the local shipyard as well as transport firms. In the photo Heikki Koivisto (SAMK), Kaarle Hovila ja Petri Kalske (Unikie) Photo Jari Mustonen |
Port of Rauma was granted in the spring of 2020 a permit to relocate contaminated dredged soil into a specific basin part in the southwest corner of Järviluoto, originally built in the fairway dredging project in 2016–2017.
In the fairway project, the basin served as a settling basin to drain away water that accumulated with the suction-dredged material in the actual stockpile basin.
“The total volume of the basin is about 100 000 m3 and it is about 2 hectares in area. Preparatory works, which include the forming of an internal slope, the installation of a filter fabric and the building of a one-metre thick moraine layer, are carried out by Terramare Oy. The objective is to ensure a tight structure to prevent harmful substances from entering the sea”, explains Technical Director Timo Metsäkallas from Port of Rauma. “The soil layer is built using moraine dredged from the bottom of the sea and piled in the area during the fairway construction works”, Mr. Metsäkallas continues.
The works will be completed by the end of September and contaminated soil dredged from under the causeway will be placed there already in October.