You are currently viewing EXPANSION OF THE EASTERN SECTION OF THE NORTH-EAST SEA CANAL

EXPANSION OF THE EASTERN SECTION OF THE NORTH-EAST SEA CANAL

Since April 2024, the bar­ges DARSS and ZINGST have been in ser­vice on the “Expan­sion of the Kiel Canal Eas­tern Sec­tion” pro­ject. The con­sor­tium car­ry­ing out the pro­ject has char­te­red the bar­ges for a period of around 40 weeks.
The Kiel Canal is the busiest arti­fi­cial sea route in the world and a life­line for Euro­pean freight traf­fic. Eco­no­mic­ally, it plays an important role for the whole of Schles­wig-Hol­stein, the metro­po­lis of Ham­burg and for the com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness of the Ger­man seaports. 

Com­ple­ted in 1895, the NOK has alre­ady been adapted seve­ral times due to the gro­wing requi­re­ments and dimen­si­ons of ship­ping. The Fede­ral Water­ways and Ship­ping Admi­nis­tra­tion is expan­ding the NOK in the area from Groß­kö­nigs­förde to Kiel Hol­tenau. The expan­sion will ensure relia­ble pas­sage times for ship­ping and the canal is well pre­pared for the ship­ping traf­fic of the future.

The main task of the bar­ges DARRS and ZINGST is to remove part of the appro­xi­m­ately 6.8 mil­lion cubic meters of wet and dry excava­ted mate­rial pro­du­ced during the canal expan­sion. The uncon­ta­mi­na­ted dred­ging spoil is trans­por­ted to a dum­ping area in the Bal­tic Sea and depo­si­ted there.