New cruise ship quay opens in Tallinn



Friday, June 20, 2014 - 19:16 by ce-press

On May 17 a E9.34m cruiseship quay allowing larger vessels to be docked was opened in Tallinn. Princess Cruises’ Royal Princess, at 330m in length the largest cruise vessel to have visited Estonia to date, was the first to call with the traditional plaque exchange taking place between harbour master Ulo Kikas and ship’s captain Dino Sagani. The 3,500 visitors and passengers were treated to a surprise flyboard show.

“For the Port of Tallinn, the construction of the new quay was the largest single investment last year,” said Alan Kiil, the Board Member of Port of Tallinn. “This investment will, on the one hand, satisfy the growing demand for Tallinn as a tourist destination and, on the other hand, help us meet the needs of cruise operators that want to use larger and larger vessels.”

Urve Palo, minister of economic affairs and communications, says there is still potential for increased passenger numbers to the Baltic Sea. “The Port of Tallinn has an excellent working relationship and several joint ventures with the ports in the Baltic Sea and such cooperation positions the region also in future as one of the top destinations for cruise tourists.”

Minister Palo stated that the close cooperation with destination ports and other service providers is crucial to meet the expectations by cruise tourists and operators.

“Tallinn is one of the top destinations in the Baltics that is very highly regarded by the visitors arriving here onboard the cruiseships,” she continued. “According to a survey performed by consulting company G P Wild [International], cruise tourists are very happy with Tallinn and highly appreciate the friendliness of the locals, service in stores and historical attractions of the city.”

Cruiseships up to 340m in length, 42m beam and with 9m draught are able to moor at the new quay. Construction began in May 2013 of the 421m-long quay which is located next to the existing cruiseship quay in the Old City harbour. It is 20m wide and the guaranteed depth at the quay wall is 11m. It has been outfitted with electricity supply, outdoor lighting, communications equipment and pipelines for supplying ships with utility water and removing waste water.

The volume of bottom dredging amounted to a total of 12,300m3 and over 200 steel piles - 30m to 46m in length - were installed in the seabed during construction. About 6,600m3 of concrete was cast for the construction.

This season Tallinn will host about 300 vessels bringing approximately 470,000 passengers to the Estonian capital.
New cruise ship quay opens in Tallinn
Royal Princess at new jetty (c) Tallinn


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