The Bilbao Port Authority has awarded SATO, a civil engineering company, the contract for the building of a new cruise terminal at Getxo at a cost of 13.8 million euros, with a 16-month completion period.
The works are scheduled to commence at the end of the summer.
The new terminal will be built into the Algorta breakwater, just a short distance from the existing Getxo cruise terminal. It will be 27,400m² in area, 76 metres wide with 355 metres of berthing and a 12-metre depth. The building work will require the making of twelve 29.42 metre-long, 14 metre-wide and 16-metre deep caissons.
The Port Authority has decided to undertake the building of this new infrastructure due to the fact that the Basque Country is awakening more and more interest as a tourist attraction; the cruise sector is also experiencing a worldwide increase and, in addition, the great shipowners are also committed to Bilbao as a port of call on their Atlantic routes as well as for cruise commencement and ending, all of which has supposed a considerable increase in the number of cruise tourists with its resulting economic impact on this sector.
[mappress]
Dredging Today Staff, June 26, 2012; Image: bilbaoport