The Port of Beirut in Lebanon has been rebuilt many times to accommodate for the growing sizes of modern container ships. Two Danish companies, Ramboll and Aarsleff, are responsible for the marine works in connection with the latest harbour expansion.

Harbours around the world are being rebuilt, to enlarge container terminals and deepen harbour basins. This is necessary to ensure that harbours meet current standards for new container ships, as they grow in size year after year, and carry more containers than ever before. The giant ships require more space, new logistics and deeper harbours.

"Expansion is crucial to ensure that harbours can accommodate for the largest container ships. There's quite a bit of competition to attract these ships-and if a harbour isn't geared to them, then they will go elsewhere. In Beirut, this meant a bigger and deeper harbour as well as building a new quay wall", explains Ralph Guldberg Bjorndal, Project Director in Ramboll's Ports and Geostructures department, and a prime mover behind the expansion of the Port of Beirut.

Expansion provides competitive edge

Ramboll is responsible for all design work related to the expansion-including the complicated deep water quay wall, constructed from concrete blocks stacked diagonally on top of one another.

Also reclamation of the old harbour basin to make space for an extra container terminal, as well as new fenders, bollards, crane rails and pavements. In other words, everything needed to utilise new harbour areas.

"The old part of the Port of Beirut was built back in the 1950's, when ships were much smaller. Nowadays, the trend in freight traffic is that ships can carry some 5,000-10,000 containers each. The harbour has been modernised over the years-so it can handle the larger ships, which are essential for financial and competitive strength," says Ralph Guldberg Bjørndal.

Global experts in harbour planning and design

If you ask Ralph Guldberg Bjørndal the reason why Denmark wins Beirut harbour projects, he'll reply that it is based on two factors. One is that Ramboll, back in 1998, designed a very successful wave breaker and quay during the first Beirut Port expansion, creating a strong, positive reputation. And the other is Ramboll's core competencies in harbour planning, design, wave assessments, coastal engineering and pavement design.

Beyond the strong expertise in planning and design of marine structures, Ramboll has a particular experience in pavement design. Ramboll uses this expertise in pavements as well for airport landing strips throughout the world-which has led to the development of "QuayPave", a Pavement Management System. The system is used to study the pavement conditions and to optimize maintenance efforts. The system is used in a number of A.P. Moller-Maersk (APM) container terminals among others throughout the world.

Cross-disciplinary approach ensures best result

In the Port of Beirut, Ramboll works across geography and departments to achieve the best possible result. Experts from Denmark and UK are collaborating on the project, as well as Ramboll's recently acquired company in Hamburg, IMS, who are contributing with strong expertise in the areas of dredging and land reclamation.

Cargo fears in Mombasa over Sudan crisis
A cargo crisis is building up in Mombasa, East Africa's most strategic port, following the crisis in South Sudan. Importers are counting the cost after the conflict in Africa's youngest country saw their goods and the trucks hired to transport them marooned at the port.

The Kenya Defence Forces ( KDF) on Monday evacuated more Kenyans from Juba, but the uptake of South Sudan-bound cargo from the Mombasa port slowed down due to the armed strife in Africa's newest state. Traditionally, the month of December is the peak season for the port, which also serves Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The pileup of cargo now poses a challenge to operators leading to massive congestion.

KPA had already put forward elaborate measures to avert congestion, but players in the shipping logistics chain fear that knock-on effects if the South Sudan conflict is prolonged may lead to choke-ups at the port. Biggest user Landlocked South Sudan is the port's second biggest user after Uganda, and last year accounted for 11.6 per cent of the total transit traffic from the port, a figure that has since increased. Most of the imports are construction materials, vehicles, food and military hardware.

On Monday last week, fierce fight between forces allied to Riek Machar, the former vice president of South Sudan and government forces loyal to President Salva Kiir erupted. The fighting has affected many Kenyan owned business activities in Juba and shipping experts say it is bound to have an effect on the operations of the port of Mombasa.

"We expect the conflict to have an impact on the operation of the port as South Sudan cargo will not move from Mombasa. But after the conflict, we also expect the volume of cargo heading to Southern Sudan to drop because shippers would not have ordered for their cargo," said KPA's Operations General Manager Captain Twalib Khamis yesterday. He said the management was monitoring the situation adding; "If the conflict enters the second week it is highly likely that the CFS operators (container freight stations) handling the South Sudan-bound cargo will be overwhelmed."
Yesterday KPA said it was conducting an assessment to determine the impact of the conflict on the port and promised to issue a comprehensive statement later. Kenya Transporters Association (KTA) yesterday said transporters who move the cargo by road had already incurred huge losses with over 1000 trucks that were heading to South Sudan held up at the Ugandan side of the Nimule border post.

"On average, a transporter charges $500 (Sh42,925) to transport cargo from Mombasa to South Sudan. For the last week our trucks have been stuck at the border. They would be on their second trip were it not for the fight," said KTA Executive Officer Wellington Kiverenge.

KPA has already issued a notice indicating that the port would operate on a 24-hour basis during the festive season, and set up a Rapid Response Port Advisory Committee comprising representatives from all port stakeholders to oversee the seamless operations at the facility. "The special Rapid Response Port Advisory Committee would formulate and implement strategies to forestall and resolve congestion and operational hitches that might occur during the peak period," said a statement from KPA Managing Director Mr Gichiri Ndua.

In a notice posted on KPA's website, Ndua said adequate arrangements had been put in place to ensure that all port services were available during the holiday and urged partners to clear their cargo to avoid creating congestion and pile up after the holidays. He warned that importers who failed to clear their cargo within the stipulated free period would have to pay port and storage charges. Import agents said that despite the measures put up by KPA, the port was bound to experience cargo pileups as movement of transit goods continue to be slowed down by the fighting in the South Sudan.

"Definitely, the port's operation at one time would be affected though we have heard reports that Uganda has agreed with transporters to drop South Sudan-bound cargo at their inland depot," said Philip Tete, the operations manager at Compact Container Freight Station, which was recently given exclusive rights to handle all cargo heading to South Sudan.