Krievu Island territory local plan development was started
Development of a local plan for the territory of the Krievu Island terminal project, covering approximately 156 ha, was started. According to the Freeport of Riga, the reason for its development is the necessity to provide more detailed conditions for the use of the territory of the Krievu island and to improve the requirements for cargo storage, processing and handling, specified in the current spatial plan, harmonizing them with the best available industry methods set forth in the guidelines of the European Commission's Joint Research Center's “Emissions from storage”. The details and improvements will not change and will not affect the objectives of the use of the Krievu Island territory, which are currently defined in the Riga spatial planning.
Today the newly built Krievu Island terminals were visited by the representatives of public organizations of residents of areas, located in the vicinity of the Freeport Territory, such as Bolderaja, Kundzinsala and Vecmilgravis, as well as the members of the Environment Protection Club. The purpose of the visit, dedicated to the development of the local planning commencement, was to see the results of the work carried out within the framework of the 1st round of the Krievu Island Project, as well as to get acquainted with the objectives and tasks of the local planning and the works planned for the second round of the project.
The local plan will be developed by SIA METRUM, which obtained the right to perform this work as a result of an open competition. The local plan for the territory of the Krievu Island will consist of 3 interconnected parts - the explanatory memorandum, the graphic part and the terms for construction and the territory use. Due to importance of the project and the high public interest for the project design, in addition to the public engagement activities, specified in the regulatory enactments, additional information measures are planned, including, if necessary, arranging meetings and discussions with interested parties.
The aim of the project “The Krievu Sala Infrastructure Development for Relocation of the Port Operation from the City Center” is to free the historical center of Riga from polluting cargo handling operations, transferring the port terminals to a more appropriate place - Krievu Island (Krievu Sala), while ensuring the competitiveness of the Riga port in the Baltic Sea region.
The project part with the Cohesion Fund co-financing has been implemented from 2010 till the end of 2015, when the project infrastructure was put into operation. In the framework of the project the port infrastructure, which complies with the world standards, was built with four deep-water berths with a total length of 1,180 m and a 249 meters long connecting berth. The depth at berths is 15.5 m, with the possibility to extend up to 17 meters. With the purpose to create a new territory and in the process of access fairway dredging activities 2.7 million cubic meters of sand were dredged from the Daugava riverbed and due to reclamation the Krievu Island territory of 75 ha is currently 2.50 m above the sea level. Access roads and streets (of 5.2 km) were built to access the terminal, as well as the rail network (of 11 km) and all the necessary engineering infrastructure and communications.
Currently, the Freeport of Riga Authority, in co-operation with terminal operators, has started the implementation of the second phase of the project, during which construction projects are being developed for construction of two bulk and general cargo handling terminals on the territory, created during the first phase of the project, thus providing the efficient relocation of bulk cargo operations from the territories of Andrejsala and Eksportosta to Krievu Island.
The planned terminal throughput capacity is from 15 to 20 million tons per year. The total project cost is 151.8 million euro. By thoughtfully implementing project activities, it was possible to achieve 10 million EUR savings.
