Overview of funded NDPTL projects

Dry Port – Intermodal Contaner Yard for Gdansk/Gdynia Ports, Poland (Grant Amount – 196 429 EUR, 2013, completed)

Feasibility study, Environmental analysis and Design Documentation were sponsored from the NDPTL Support Fund in order to prepare a project that made an intermodal node which fitted the assumptions of intermodality, optimization and growing efficiency and safety in mobility of loads in the ND region. Land Baltic Countries connection via Zajaczkowo Tczewskie Dry Port is envisaged to make an alternative for sea connection (feeder Baltic fracht), enabling land intermodal connection and making an important complement to the created pan-European routes via Rail Baltica.

As an integral port hinterland for Gdynia and Gdansk, the Dry Port is an important element in logistic network between Scandinavia and continental Europe. Location in the Baltic-Adriatic transport corridor enables the Dry Port to redistribute Scandinavian export cargo transported to West, East, Central and South Europe.

Upgrade of the Saimaa Canal infrastructure, Finland (Grant Amount – 109 000 EUR, 2013, completed)

The Saimaa Canal, being an essential part of the traffic system in the Eastern Finland, connects 3500 km of inland waterways to the Baltic Sea, serving transportation between Finland and Russia, but also the transportation between big part of Finland and the whole Baltic Sea area. The project included plans and detailed designs of the Saimaa Canal electrical distribution, lightning, mechanical structures and machine rooms. Main objective of the project was to improve the canal, creating a safe and modern waterway connecting Finland, Russia and the Baltic Sea region.

Development of the Luleå Iron Ore Port, Sweden (Grant Amount – 700 000 EUR, to be completed by the end of 2021)

The project aims to accomplish the final preparatory – hydrographic survey – of the global project of further development of the Luleå Iron Ore Port (Sweden) in order to meet the growing demand on transportation from the steel industry in the Northern Europe and secure a flow of iron ore from the Northern Sweden and Finland without disturbances caused by infrastructure bottlenecks or ice walls lowering the reliability of the cargo flow also during severe winters. The Northern Axis, that serve Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia and others, has the Port of Lulea conveniently located near the middle, with the possibility to serve as redundant capacity in many directions. The global project, that the NDPTL contribution will prepare, is not only aimed to serve the needs of the iron ore export, as it will also support several suggested mining ventures’ feasibility studies. On both side of the Swedish / Finnish border the prerequisites for new exploration will improve greatly when there is documented and efficient port capacity available. The much improved railway line between Boden and the border at Haparanda/Tomeå holds a large capacity reserve that will allow for such an expansion from the Finnish side. The incoming handling of LNG for large Swedish consumers via rail shipments from Torneå, is another indication of this process towards specialisation and cooperation in the port sector. Much due to the pure size of the infrastructure investments needed.

The results of the global project will as well serve to environmental needs of the ND region. With the extension of the fairway and the capacity of the port it will be possible to replace what today is three to four ships by one ship. This will dramatically reduce costs and lead to a considerable reduction of the environmental impact from shipping. Effects that will not only materialised in reduced shipment costs per ton ore or coal, but also in the form of reduced costs for piloting, tugboats and less movements of ships at quays which is expected to improve the utilisation of the loading equipment.

Other projects

The project was about improving one of the major connections of the Northern Axis
going from Norway, via Sweden and Finland to Russia and embraced as well the Vartius (FI) / Lytta (RU) border crossing point. Based on the increasing traffic along the road and through the border crossing, and growing business interests, upgrades and new buildings were needed. The project made a significant compliment to a project “Road Paltamo-Vartius” supported by ENPI Large Scale Project Facility.

The road 9A From Helsinki to St. Petersburg/Moscow is the most important road transport route between Finland and Russia. The Nuijamaa/Brusnichnoye is one of the most crowded border stations. The planned new road is needed for international traffic. This section as well ensures common planning of the transport routes between two NDPTL partners. The project directly supports all main NDPTL objectives, promoting cross-border cooperation across the Finnish-Russian border by improving the mobility of the people and cargo over the border.

With concern to the growing traffic flows with entails stronger environmental contamination, changing to more environment friendly transport modes is a definite priority for the Northern Dimension region. An incentive to move goods from motor roads to railways is getting more pronounced. Therefore investments in railway infrastructure and creation of intermodal hubs get more and more important.
This project assessed the need for intermodal rail transportation services in Lithuania, Poland and Belarus by carrying out market analysis, and identified political, economic, technical, technological, legal, social, administrative and other obstacles for intermodal transportation development in the countries in question and developed an action plan for elimination of such obstacles. The project promoted cross-border cooperation between Lithuania, Poland and Belarus and was aimed to strengthen the NDPTL regional networks, supporting the environmental aspect as well.

The project concerned preparatory works and studies for a new investment aimed at developing sea transport by extension of the DCT terminal in Gdansk. The planned investment gave rise to the development and construction of the first stage of the publicly available deep-sea container terminal fit for handling containers, Ro-Ro cargoes, and other cargo types, of the yearly maximum predicted handling capacity of ca. 1 500 000 TEU (with a possible further extension).
The implementation of preparatory activities within the scope of this project launched a new investment of DCT Gdansk S.A. aimed at the creation of the largest and most modern container terminal in the Baltic Sea region located within the NDPTL network. Two Trans European Transport Corridors (VI Transport Corridor connecting Scandinavia with Southern Europe, and IA Transport Corridor branch connecting Gdansk, Riga and Kaliningrad) are crossing Pomeranian region within the territory of which Gdansk terminal is located. Gdansk port is connected to the domestic and European road and rail network, thus promoting inter-modality and coherence.
Extension of the port infrastructure will have a positive effect on transport accessibility while the purchase of advanced equipment and emphasis on the intermodal aspect will significantly increase the quality of the entire transport system by eliminating disproportions between regions within the NDPTL Member States.
The NDPTL grant co-financed analyses, studies and reports required to prepare the investment. These documents allowed to secure EUR 200m for the project which was financed by the loans received from consortium of commercial and development banks. This amount includes not only construction of the infrastructure but also purchase of handling equipment such as quay and yard cranes.

The project included early studies, planning and projecting for new ferry terminals on both sides of Kvarken, in Umeå and Vaasa ports (Sweden and Finland).

The project is a part of an overall ambition to increase cohesion between Finland and Sweden, to up-grade Bothnian transport system that links important axes and corridors together, to reduce bottlenecks and facilitate development and growth for the industries.

The port of Umeå, the one of the largest in Northern Scandinavia, is a part of the Bothnian Corridor and European Core Network. It is the northernmost container port with regular lines to/from the continent and Finland. The dynamic industrial development of the region is based on both mineral and forestry activities. The region of Umeå is now in the heart of a transport and infrastructure pressure.

The port of Vaasa, as well a part of the Bothnian Corridor, is strategically located in the very vicinity of the leading Nordic concentration of energy technology. The Vaasa region is growing fast due to its export industry. Hence all infrastructure development projects are crucial for continuous strengthening and growth of the region.

This maritime link, Vaasa-Umeå, completes E12 highway, which runs from Russia all the way to the Norwegian Atlantic coast.

The project has strongly improved the link of the harbour with E12, the Bothnian Corridor and the Kvarken region, and reinforced the intermodality aspect of the harbour through railway networks instead of road infrastructures.

The project implied intermodal and multimodal solutions and contributed to the ambition to change transport patterns and create a more environment friendly adaptation of transports. It was as well a step forward to meet the challenges of the new SECA regulations.

The project was aimed to conduct necessary investigations and develop documentation needed to get the decisions and funding from local regional and national authorities to facilitate “New Narvik Harbour” by 2030.
Narvik is a part of the NDPTL Regional Networks both rail and road. The Ofoten railway connects Narvik to Russia, Belarus, Baltic states and Poland.
Port of Narvik is a Core Port in the TEN-T network but is not eligible for TEN-T funds.
The transport ministers of the Barents region have pointed to Narvik as a port that will play a key role for Swedish and Finnish mining as it will be advantageous to transport from the deep ice-free port of Narvik in the foreseeable future.

Project Number	Project Title	Country	Max grant allocation in contract (EUR)
001-2013	Oulu-Kajaani Road	Finland	500 000
003-2013	Dry Port in Gdansk-Gdynia	Poland	196 429
008-2013	Saimaa Canal Infrastructure	Finland	109 000
0011-2013	Brusnichnoye-Vyborg Road	Russia	200 000
001-2014	Elimination of Obstacles in Transit LT-BY	Lithuania	140 000
006-2014	DCT Gdansk	Poland	150 000
007-2014	Umeå-Vaasa Ports	Finland & Sweden	320 000
012-2014	New Narvik Harbour	Norway	388 000
002-2015	Iron Ore Port Lulea	Sweden	700 000
Total			2 703 429