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Community
OPENING UP THE PORT TO THE CITY
Jordi Torrent, head of strategy, Port of Barcelona talks to GreenPort about the port’s huge community redevelopment project which has been 30 years in the making
Photo: Port of Barcelona
The port is undertaking no mean feat with its project relocate its ferry and cruise terminals and open the port up to the city, a project which has just won the 2022 ESPO award.
Barcelona’s project called “Your Port Opens Up Again” focuses on passenger traffic, infrastructure and reducing environmental impact and creating a better integration between the port and the city.
“We don’t participate very often in many awards as a port authority. I think it’s the first occasion we’ve submitted an entry for the port in at least 14 years but we are very happy with how we have managed to design this project and make compatible the wishes and strategies of many different partners,” Mr Torrent tells GreenPort. ”That’s why we submitted the entry but also to inform the community about the project - ports very often have problems telling people what we are doing, so we thought it would be a good way of communicating with the city.”
Green undertaking
Barcelona’s project will relocate one ferry terminal and two cruise terminals from Port Vell to a passenger-only dock on the Adossat commercial quay.
The plan is to transfer what still remains in the old port of passenger activity to a new location where all the passenger activity takes place.
But in order for the passenger activity to come over to its new location, a multi purpose terminal at the commercial port has to be moved first. Then, thanks to the liberation of the area currently occupied by the ferry terminal, a nautical shuttle service will be launched to connect different areas of the old port, further connecting the city and the port. The port authority is also testing its first autonomous shuttle bus for moving people from port terminals to the city centre.
When the passenger terminals have been relocated, the local community will be able to take advantage of the new green and walking areas built at the areas previously dedicated to ferry and cruise terminals.
New port areas will be dedicated to develop a Blue Economy innovation hub and to accommodate logistics training institutions. The first of them, the Institut de Logística de Barcelona, has already been opened in the World Trade Center. The port says that these new hub activities will diversify further employment opportunities in the port area for the local community.
This project is looking to complete a process which begun in Barcelona 30 years ago, says Mr Torrent.
“We started then with the reform of the old port with the Olympic Games in 1992, at that time all of the area was used for commercial activities, loading and unlaoding of cargo and solid bulk etc. Most of this was removed at that time and then the port started developing passenger activities and cruise - these sectors grew exponentially with the Olympic Games.” ”This project is going to complete this process because it finally remove all cargo and passenger activities from the old port and complete the reform of the area.”
When it comes to the environment, the project will do also three things.
In the old location, deploying shore power (OPS) would
8 Barcelona
project called “Your Port Opens Up Again” focuses on passenger traffi c, infrastructure and reducing environmental impact
have been very difficult. Concentrating the two cruise terminals and the ferry terminal in the new location will make it much easier for OPS installation.
By moving the passenger operations the port authority will reduce navigation within the port area and make navigation faster and simpler by moving it further away from the downtown location in the city.
Historically, the terminals have been located next to Las Ramblas - one of the main tourist hotspots of the city.This means that emissions are going to be reduced in the city centre and importantly, with regards to the ferries, the huge congestion that is created every time there is a ferry call (to and from locations such as Ibiza and Mallorca) will be alleviated.
Community involvement
The port has worked hard to involve the city, community and all stakeholders in the relocation project.
This started with an agreement between the port and the city council in 2018. The project also had to be agreed with the remaining public institutions involved and more importantly, with the four private companies operating the terminals affected by the project.
“This required a lot of balance between public interest and private interest, I think it’s a very good example of cooperation. We have had some tensions historically with the city when it came to the cruise industry but I think that 2018 was a turning point,” Mr Torrent explains.
As if to ramp up the already gigantic pressure on the port to get the works completed as soon as possible, the port now has no choice but to expedite the work.
The port has been awarded with the organisation of the America’s Cup in 2024 - the biggest nautical competition that takes place in the world and one of the oldest.
The event will take place in and alongside the port and, the America’s Cup teams have started moving in to already to the area where the old passenger terminals are currently situated.
“We have been forced (in a good way) to speed up the work because we have needed to make room for the bases of the competing teams,” says Mr Torrent.
So the relocation of the cruise and ferry terminals has upped the pace with the plan to create the green open spaces for the community after the competition.
Mr Torrent says if all goes to plan, the ferry terminal will be moved to its new location in early 2023. During 2023, the two cruise terminals will also be moved and the multi-purpose terminal also moved to its new location.
“We are very fortunate to host the America’s Cup and at the same time this has allowed us to negotiate concessions with the terminal operators faster than what we would have done if the America’s Cup wasn’t taking place,” he explains.
Aside from expediting the project of course, the competition is great news for the port because of the various industries and companies that will be setting up in the area to support the competing teams. The event itself will bring more money, tourism and notoriety to the city itself and the regional economy.
Green focus
Away from all the excitement of the port’s relocation project and the America’s Cup, the port’s focus remains very much on the environment.
OPS deployment is key to the greening of the port’s cruise and ferry sectors and is one of the major reasons for the move. But it’s hugely important for the container sector too. The port has already started with a project for OPS deployment at one cargo terminal that will be operational at the end of 2024.
OPS will then be deployed at the port’s ferry terminals, with the plan to deploy OPS at the cruise terminals in 2026. Away from OPS, the port has huge interest in alternative fuels, which Mr Torrent says the port needs to be ready for.
“We are getting ready with LNG as a transition fuel and as one of the top European ports for LNG vessel calls we need to be ready. We already cater for LNG bunkering operations, truck to ship (for ferries) and ship to ship (for cruise) as from several years ago.”
Hydrogen is another focus. For the America’s Cup in 2024, all of the support vessels will run on hydrogen so Mr Torrent says that this should help the port with creating a demand for the alternative fuel at the port and give the authority a reason for installing new infrastructure.
The port is also renewing its focus on creating renewable energy with the emphasis on solar. With more than one million square metres of warehouses and the terminals across the port, it sees an opportunity to install a multitude of solar panels.
These future focuses have been included in the port’s stratgic plan which has already been approved.
“We started working on our strategic plan in Feb 2019, it was approved in Jan 2021, so it took us almost two years. Some would say this was too long, probably, but the reason why it took us so long was because we had almost 200 different parties involved in the brainstorming,” explains Mr Torrent.
“We tried to involve our customers, stakeholders, NGOs, consultants, administrations and the port community in the main strategies of the port and make sure we were transparent when we put our strategy together. I think today transparency is a must and our strategic planning is an example of this.”
Sound advice indeed for any port undertaking such a project in the future.
transparency is a must and our strategic planning is an example of this.”
Sound advice indeed for any port undertaking such a project in the future.
8 Jordi Torrent, head of strategy, Port of Barcelona
Photo: Port of Barcelona
