Caution – Builders at work!
Current expansion and modernisation measures at Contargo terminals
In order to meet customers’ and employees’ requirements in the medium and long term, Contargo is carrying out modifications just now at several terminals: In Emmelsum, Mannheim and Frankfurt construction measures are in full swing. In Hof planning permission for construction work has been granted.
Building work on the empty container depot of Contargo Rhein-Neckar GmbH in Mannheim was completed by the end of March 2016. Here an unused area of 25,000 qm2 has been asphalted over, providing space for c. 3,500 TEU. A repair hall for containers, a combined washing and filling facility and an office/social container block for the industrial employees have also been built. This is now the first of Contargo’s sites to be completely equipped with energy-saving LED lighting technology.
Another construction site in Mannheim is in the Handelshafen. There the port association Hafengesellschaft Mannheim (HGM) is expanding the container terminal. The existing terminal is being extended by a length of 400 m, so that the area will be enlarged by approx. 20,000 m2. This will provide additional depot space for about 1,400 containers. In the 3rd quarter of 2016, two portal cranes will then be installed on the extended crane runway, meaning that Contargo is expecting to be able to start operating the terminal at the end of the 1st quarter of 2017.
Extension and modernisation
Construction is also going on further north, in Frankfurt am Main. There, a transit depot is being constructed for containers delivered or awaiting collection by trucks, to be organised with a Terminal Operating System. To make room for this area an office building, a six-storey granary and a grain silo with 174 silo cells from the 1950s have to be demolished. The demolition phase is scheduled to finish in mid-April 2016 – then the construction work can begin. The site is expected to become operative in July 2016, but first an OCR gate (Optical Character Recognition) will be installed at the entrance to the site which can recognise vehicles and containers automatically via cameras and scans, and book them into the system.
Great plans
On the Lower Rhine in Voerde-Emmelsum extensive work lies ahead in order to convert the existing handling facilities in the DeltaPort into a trimodal container terminal with a total area of 46,000 m2 for Contargo. At present work is being done on the drainage and substructure in preparation for the subsequent surfacing with concrete. The construction of the administrative and processing building is still at an early stage.
In the Franconian town of Hof, building hasn’t even started yet. The regional government of Middle Franconia has just granted planning permission for the extension of the Freight Centre, thereby authorising the construction project. Thus the container terminal in the Hof Freight Centre (GVZ) can be enlarged from its present 15,000 m2 to approximately 45,000 m2 . Additionally two portal cranes are to be installed, thus ensuring round-the-clock operation. The project is planned to commence in the last quarter of 2016, with a view to completing it in 2017.