The Port Authority revises the cost of some of its projects to adapt them to the "changing" current economic situation.
The APS Board of Directors plans to authorize this week a new economic approval for the expansion in height of the automobile silo and the construction of a RoRo ramp at the Maliaño Docks.
The increase in the price of raw materials, especially steel, has forced the institution to make an upward revision of the cost of the projects before giving way to a new tender.
Martín assures that the Port Authority "is being able to respond with agility to the constant changes in the markets" and that the progress of "all the planned works" is "clearly visible" so that, by the end of 2023, the port "will have changed its appearance and will be much more efficient".
Santander 16/03/2022. The president of the Port Authority of Santander, Francisco Martin, said this morning that the port "is proving to be able to adapt to the continuous ups and downs of the markets processing with agility and solvency solutions for the works are assumable by construction companies and tenders are not deserted. Martín explained that "the increase in the price of raw materials, especially steel, has made it necessary to revise the cost of the projects upwards before a new bidding process can be launched".
Thus, in its meeting next Friday, the Board of Directors will carry out a new economic approval of works such as the extension in height of the automobile silo and the construction of a RoRo ramp in the Maliaño Docks, which will mean an investment of 55 million euros and which will allow them to go out to tender with prices adjusted to the reality of the current markets.
Martin has assured that "despite the uncertainty of the moment in which we live", the progress of the works planned by the port is "clearly visible" so that, by the end of 2023, this infrastructure "will have changed its appearance and will be much more efficient".
The port's top manager has also recalled the handicap posed by the space limitations to which the Cantabrian dock is subjected and stressed that "with this effort in the development of our infrastructure we are fulfilling our promise to be sustainable and avoid at all costs to continue filling in the Bay". The president of the APS has assured that the port is proving "to be able to grow and continue generating wealth and employment and, at the same time, to be respectful with its environment".
Automobile silo
Next Friday will take place the economic approval of the construction of the second, third and fourth floors of the vertical silo of automobiles. An infrastructure that, with the revision of the costs, will mean an investment of 50.4 million Euros and will have an execution period of 40 months.
After the procedure that will foreseeably be approved by the Board of Directors next Friday, the work must then be submitted for technical approval by Puertos del Estado.
Floating RoRo ramp
The Board of Directors will also carry out in its meeting on Friday a new economic approval of the floating RoRo ramp of the Maliaño Docks, which will involve an investment of almost 5 million euros and will have an execution term of six months.
The purpose of this action is to build a new station for ferries operating in the port of Santander, rehabilitating the Maliaño docks and building a new floating ramp, which will replace the current hydraulic one, to improve the quality of service to the fleet of ferries and RoRo cargo. A Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) supply station will also be installed at this location in the short term.
The Board of Directors of the Port Authority will also discuss, at its meeting on Friday, the approval of an agreement with the City Council of Santoña and the Cantabrian Regional Society for Tourism Promotion (CANTUR) to regulate the access regime to the lighthouse of El Caballo, located in the municipality of Santoña.
The agreement will be made on a temporary basis until the end of the procedure initiated by the APS to remove this facility and to assign it to the Coastal Demarcation.
This facility, which was assigned to the Port Authority of Santander in 1994 as part of the coastal lighting and maritime signaling, did not develop these functions since at least 1992. Likewise, El Caballo does not appear as a maritime signal in any of the resolutions of Puertos del Estado.