One of the issues of the new port:
To enable shipping companies operating ferries to reduce their stopover time.
Because time… is money! Reducing loading/unloading time of a ferry by 30 to 40% offers two options to the shipping company:
- Either keeping the same time frequencies, and then reducing crossing speed, thus its fuel consumption in a significant proportion;
- Either taking advantage of time saved at each stopover to increase its service frequency to six rotations between Calais and Dover per 24 hours!
Teams in charge of Calais Port 2015 design worked on several aspects of its design to achieve this result, including the organization of land flows. But it is worth to focus on the linkspans for vehicles between the ship and the platforms that will also make it possible to ensure a much higher throughput than in the current port.
With a different design, they are much wider with more capacity and allow 4 heavy goods vehicle lanes, or 2 heavy goods vehicle lanes and 3 passenger vehicle lanes, to be unloaded simultaneously in the direction of ramps leading to the port’s road access.
This design effectiveness was checked by numerical models simulating road flows, their results reassured future port customers about the level of service they will be offered.