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While
the facility is open for business now, further
construction will continue through to 2016
at which time the third and final phase
of development will be completed.
The
entire development has been conducted in
keeping with strict environmental guidelines
to ensure that the impact on the local community
will be kept to a minimum, the commercial
director explained.
"We
went through all of the precautions to make
it environmentally friendly and sustainable
and now we are very proud that we have finished
this first terminal. We are also very pleased
to have an investor like HPH with us in
this development.
"They
won the tender for that concession and they
are really making a very new and modern
terminal," Ms Puig said.
The
commercial director added that productivity
has also been very high at the terminal
in early testing, clocking up to 30 moves
per crane, per hour.
"This
is a very high standard in Europe,"
she said.
Today
the terminal boasts 1.5 kilometres of berthing
space with a minimum depth alongside of
16.5 metres. The quay length will be approximately
double that upon completion of phase three
in 2016, at which point the facility will
be capable of handling up to two million
TEU per annum.
BEST
will also contain the biggest on-dock railway
terminal in southern Europe.
According
to a statement issued by HPH it will hold
eight rails of 750 metres each.
Intermodal
connectivity has been and will continue
to be a major drawcard for the port of Barcelona.
"We
have a very good network of rail connections
to all places along the central corridor
in the Iberian Peninsula to the northern
corridor and through to southern Europe
up to Lyon, Toulouse and Bordeux,"
Ms Puig said.
Zaragoza,
in the Spanish northwest, is an important
rail link from Barcelona as it located strategically
between Bilbao in the north, Madrid, Valencia
and Barcelona.
"It
is a very strategic point for us and we
have three trains running from Barcelona
to Zaragoza every day. So we are well connected
to this place and that gives us an advantage,"
Ms Puig said.
TERCAT
is also now investing in Pamplona in the
Navarre region, which sits near the French
border. This, the commercial director noted,
would also prove a boon for the port of
Barcelona.
The
port authority has also invested in an inland
terminal in Zaragoza, which is being used
for distribution through to the capital
of Madrid.
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