Skandia Gateway in Gothenburg

Name of project: The Skandia Gateway – Deeper fairway in the Port of Gothenburg.

Where: Gothenburg. Widening and deepening of the northern fairway to the Skandia Harbour and the turning area.

Planned implementation period:  August 2025 to May 2027; if possible, the start of construction can be brought forward one year. A decision about the implementation period will be made before summer 2022.

State of maturity: Main hearing in the Land and Environment Court ends on April 1st 2022, with an environmental permit expected in May 2022. In case of an appeal, permit may be delayed about 12 months.  

The financing of the project is secured.

Planned depth: Maximum depth for dredging is 20.5 m in the outer part of the fairway. In the inner part the maximum depths are 19.4 and 19.25 m.

Preliminary dredging volume: Approximately 13.5 million m3 in situ.

Approximate distribution of rock/dredgable material: Approximately 13 million m3 of clay and about 340,000 m3 of rock in situ.

Known contaminated material?/Management of contaminated material?: Approximately 285,000 m3 of clay in situ is classified as contaminated material. The project is applying for an environmental permit for dumping contaminated spoil at sea and cover these with around 10 m of clean dredged clay.

Potential distance to disposal site or landfill site: The project is applying for an environmental permit to dispose all spoil at sea. The intended disposal site is located around 8–10 nautical miles from the dredging area.

Potential difficult traffic situation: As the work area is located in and around the existing fairway, there is a lot of traffic and stringent demands for coordination with the Swedish Maritime Administration’s Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) and the Port of Gothenburg, among others. There is also a southern fairway to Gothenburg that can be used to reduce traffic in the northern fairway.

Special conditions: The project is being implemented in partnership with Port of Gothenburg. The Swedish Maritime Administration is responsible for dredging the fairway and adjusting the fairway markings. The Port of Gothenburg is responsible for dock measures, including the dredging 50 m from docks.

It shall be noted that a similar dredging project was conducted in Gothenburg over the years 2002–2004. Therefore, the area and the risks are well known.

Estimated production time: Approximately two seasons, with a break in disruptive works between the middle of May and the middle of August.

Type of contract: Not decided.

Procurement process, tender period, pre-qualification: A formal decision regarding the procurement process is being made before summer 2022. If production is to start in August 2025, the procurement will be advertised around the turn of the year 2023/2024, with the contract being signed before the end of 2024. If production is to start in August 2024, the project expects procurement to be advertised in early spring 2023.

Questions received

Question from contractor: You mentioned overflow in the presentation regarding Skandiaporten, does this mean no overflow at all or possible re-use of the water?

In the application for the environmental permit, no overflow is mentioned. The purpose is the minimize turbidity or clouding when dredging. Since the project is still in the application process we cannot guarantee what the permit will include, but a possible reuse of the water could be allowed.

Follow up comment from contractor: It will definitely be more preferable to set regulations regarding turbidity or clouding instead of specifying n overflow.

Will you use Swedish or English as contract language?

We haven’t decided on the contract language yet but usually we use Swedish as a contract language. If so, we could translate some important contract documents to minimize the risk of important aspects getting lost in translation.

Will there be a flexibility regarding dredging season?

We cannot answer at this moment. If the application process regarding the environmental permit we have calculated on two dredging seasons, but we have also let the Land and Environmental Court know that additional seasons could be added if longer time restrictions will be given.

Can and will you share all the raw data from the performed geotechnical investigation?

We have not planned on sharing the raw data but we will look in to the possibility of doing so in the near future. We will make sure to inform all participants from today, as well as other possible contractors.