Port studies of Vordingborg Port, Denmark

We have carried out port studies for Vordingborg Port to expand the port to prepare it for larger ships than currently calling the port.

9 October 2015

Vordingborg Port had suggested a new port layout with a channel prepared for accommodating larger ships than currently calling the port. The channel had to be dredged to 9.4m water depth.

Before starting the project, Vordingborg Port asked us to carry out simulator studies of the suggested port layout. The studies included an evaluation of two different designs of the channel as well as of the turning basin.

Vordingborg Port hired four pilots from DanPilot and a Dutch pilot. The pilots from DanPilot were acquainted with the port, and the Dutch pilot was familiar with the ships used in the simulations.

The simulations were carried out in one of our full-mission ship bridge simulators using models of the suggested layouts of the port expansion. The ships used in the simulations were models of ships expected to call the port. Based on the simulations, width and fairway buoys, size of turning basin, and the need for tug assistance were estimated under different weather and wind conditions. The simulations were carried out over 4 days.

The results of the simulations

The results of the simulations showed that the planned turning basin is too small. The pilots need more space for manoeuvring, and the planned channel must be adjusted to have as few bends as possible.

Jan-Jaap Cramer, Harbour Master, Vordingborg Port says:”We strongly recommend other ports considering a new port layout to carry out port studies at FORCE Technology. The period from the initial meeting to carrying out the simulations in FORCE Technology’s full-mission ship bridge simulator was three months. In this period we had sufficient time to make all the necessary preparations in order to get the simulation scenarios as close to reality as possible. It is essential that port studies are carried out at an early stage to be able to implement all the recommendations from the simulations in the final layout”. He continues:”It is very important to us that we are now able to fulfill the demands on the port of both our pilots and our clients”.

Vordingborg Port is currently back at the drawing table, revising the design layout according to the recommendations based on the simulations.We recommend that a port study of the revised design is carried out to test the final layout of Vordingborg’s new port.