Barcelona, 27th March 2007 – ADELTE, a world leading designer and manufacturer of passenger boarding bridges for the Cruise and Ferry industries, has released details of its latest passenger boarding bridge contract for Harwich International Port in the United Kingdom.
The THALASSA Passenger Boarding Bridge, ideal for ferry terminals, will be an integral part of the re-development of Berth 2 at Harwich, which is being carried out to modernise installations and improve passenger convenience and safety. ADELTE’s will install a passenger boarding bridge and an additional covered walkway, to connect with the existing fixed elevated walkway leading to the terminal building.
The safety features of the structure are paramount for the installation. The drawbridge cabin incorporates a series of state-of the-art technological devices to alert to any ship movement that shouldn’t be occurring, and provides a number of alarms at different stages to make operators aware that things aren’t moving when they should be. The bridge will also incorporate an auto-retractable cabin pod in case the ship is moving too far away from the berth. Aside from that, general fire safety will be incorporated throughout the rest of the installation.
”This particular design permits great flexibility”, according to Oriol Puig, Technical Director at ADELTE. “Although the bridge is a fixed structure, it allows longitudinal movements along the berthing zone of 19 metres, an elevating stroke of 12,5 metres and a telescopic movement of the drawbridge cabin of up to 4 metres. Another important and unique feature is that this bridge is designed to be completely operational above water. The THALASSA boarding bridge is thus very versatile and can adapt to many different locations and situations and is currently in process of being patented”.
Improved passenger access is also an essential aspect of the THALASSA installation. The passenger boarding bridge at Berth 2 uses a long series of carriages to achieve an acceptable gradient on the structure in order to comply with UK DDA regulations for disability access. There is also a four-metre tide range at Harwich, which makes stability an important factor.
Harwich International port awarded ADELTE the contract to design and deliver the installation after publicly advertising for bids. The general re-development works on Berth 2 at Harwich will finalize in April with passenger boarding bridge delivery scheduled for May this year. ADELTE has designed and delivered similar THALASSA boarding bridges for ferry terminals in the ports of Barcelona (Spain) and Portsmouth (UK).
