Maasvlakte

The Maasvlakte ( German: " Maasvlakte ") is a large industrial area and harbor area, which was in the Netherlands south of the Maas estuary on the southeastern margin of the North Sea created an artificial island and is part of the Port of Rotterdam. It belongs to the municipality of Rotterdam, although the city center is 40 kilometers away. On it is a lighthouse.

History

The Maasvlakte was built as early as the 1960s, in 1973 laid there on the first ships. For the construction of Maasvlakte a ring dike was built and washed up the interior with sand from the North Sea. In this sand there are still many fossils and fossil hunters are often encountered. It is noteworthy that we have succeeded despite the functional nature of the Maasvlakte to imitate a part of the natural course of the old coast ( dunes and flat coast) by particularly sensitive dike management.

The main operations on the Maasvlakte are

• Maasvlakte Olie Terminal
• The Delta Terminal of Europe Container Terminals (ECT ), since 1986
• APM Terminals, the container terminal of the AP Møller- Mærsk
• The coal and biomass power plant of E.ON Benelux
• Lyondell
• The Europees Massagoed Overslagbedrijf for the transshipment of ore and coal

At the Maasvlakte start Betuweroute and the A15 motorway.

Maasvlakte 2

2004, the plans for the Tweede Maasvlakte ( " Second Maasvlakte " ) have been approved, which will be built west of the North Sea. The land reclamation by hydraulic started in the spring of 2008, well over half of the new area (2000 hectares ) is used for enlargement of the port for terminals and industry, the rest is to serve nature conservation and recreation. By increasing the Maasvlakte by 20% to 6,000 hectares and the new port, the cargo handling capacity of container tripled. This should extend to the year 2030, the projected area requirement. The cost will be around three billion euros.

In mid-2007, the last establishments authorized to settle on Maasvlakte 2 is selected. The 14 selected companies have formed a consortium under the name Rotterdam World Gateway. The Port of Rotterdam has made ​​it a condition that the hinterland connections by 2033 at least 45 % of the containers are transported by barge, 20 % by rail and 35 % by trucks over roads.

In the area of ​​Maasvlakte 2 arise from two different operator consortia, the container terminals Rotterdam World Gateway ( RWG ) ( 2013) and APM Terminals ( APMT ) (2014 ) with a combined capacity of around five million TEUs for today's largest container ships with 18,000 TEU. They will be suitable for vessels up to 20 meters draft. In addition, an area for the expansion of Euromax terminal is provided.

From 2014 the new port for the first part of operation should be available. The symbolic space closure of the Eleven kilometers of protective dike around the new Peninsula was completed on July 11, 2012 by Queen Beatrix. For the first few years after commissioning of the Maasvlakte 2, the market leader ECT feared over-capacity in the container loading in Rotterdam.