Port of Bronka Prepares for Opening
Technical plant and equipment installation for the first stage of Bronka’s port facilities is now complete with the Liebherr LHM 800 mobile port crane installed at the end of September, bringing the port closer to operation.
The deepwater Port of Bronka is located on the outskirts of St. Petersburg and lies on the Southern bank of the Gulf of Finland. Directly linked to the St. Petersburg orbital highway and the Russian rail network, the port features a multifunctional cargo handling facility comprising two terminals plus a logistics center. Covering 107 hectares, the container terminal offers five berths along quays extending 1,200 meters. The RoRo terminal covers 57 hectares, and with a quay length of 710 meters permits simultaneous handling of three ships. At the first stage of construction, handling capacity of the container terminal totals 1,450,000 TEU per year, plus 260,000 units at the RoRo terminal. A first-stage water depth of 14.4 meters enables the Port of Bronka to handle post-Panamax vessels.
Built within eight months, the new LHM 800 in heavy load configuration was delivered completely assembled to the Port of Bronka by the freighter, MV Papenburg. The LHM 800 has a lifting capacity of up to 308 tons and a boom range of up to 64 meters. “We are very proud to be the first on the market to put an LHM 800 mobile port crane into operation. We are using the crane at both our container and RoRo Terminals for loading heavy cargo. Given the increasing size and greater weight of industrial plant components, we are optimally positioned for the future,” said Alexei Shukletsov, Managing Director of the Port of Bronka.
The cargo handling operation currently has four Liebherr STS P167 L (WS) container gantry cranes and 10 RTG cranes built by Konecranes of Finland. The cranes have a stacking height of one-over-five standard containers, can reach over a stack width of six containers plus discharge and load rail tracks and have a lifting capacity of 50 tons beneath the spreader. The container gantry cranes with a boom reach of 51 meters are capable of discharging or loading 18 adjacent containers on deck. In twin-lift operation they each have a lifting capacity of 65 tons. This equipment is complemented during the first stage by 25 Terberg YT 222 terminal tractors with a capacity of up to 36 tons, 25 Novatech roll-trailers, two empty container stackers, two reach stackers for use on rail tracks and for the RoRo Terminal, and a Konecranes SMV Loader with a lifting capacity of 33 tons. Bronka’s intermodal handling facilities are therefore optimally positioned for handling state-of-the-art post-Panamax vessels.
Two rail sidings 535 meters in length are available at the terminal site. Handled simultaneously, the two halves of the train are combined into one block train 1.3 kilometers’ away at Bronka Marshalling Yard. Work has been completed on the tracks linking the Port of Bronka with the yard and the Russian rail network. The extension of Bronka Marshalling Yard will be completed at the end of December.
