Direct Access to Maritime Ports by Adapted Inland Waterway Vessels

Direct access to maritime ports for inland navigation vessels generally occurs by using an appropriate system of locks, which gives access to the main port docks with a reasonable variation of the sea water level, necessary for secure navigation and according to the rules of conception of the vessels themselves.rn

rnIn that respect, future ports layout requires for new quays or for new terminals a dedicated inland waterways access in order to give to this mass transportation mean the right infrastructure to compete on a fair basis with the other mass transportation means (maritime feeder vessels, railway trains). However, it may occur that the growth of inland vessels traffic is too slow or that urban real estate pressure is too high to allow inland vessels to enter new docks through a dedicated infrastructure when the building of new locks is regarded as too expensive to be realised and is therefore delayed. rn

rnFor instance, the new port facility for containers PORT 2000 at port of Le Havre in France foresees the building of a new inland navigation lock at the bottom part of the new dock only in several years (perhaps 10 to 15 years after the dock has been built).rn

rnAs a matter of fact, because the French inland ship-owners were aware of those issues, they asked PIANC to examine if other such cases would exist in other countries where the access of inland vessels to maritime ports through open sea would be allowed and if an expert group would be interested to make an international benchmarking to understand which requirements were necessary to allow safe navigation to those vessels for a short stretch in open sea.rn

rnThe then president of PIANC, Eric Van den Eede asked the Maritime Commission to find the best way to meet this demand and MarCom suggested to build a common MarCom and InCom Expert Group to cope with this question and to propose recommendations applicable to the persons in charge of those types of question. It became clear that a common reflection between maritime administrations which deliver navigation licenses, interested port authorities or port administrations, would be needed, as well as other types of expertise stemming from the inland navigation administrations, the inland ports, the inland vessels ship-owners, classification societies, universities or technical institutes in charge of analysing those types of risk.rn