After more than 55 years as one of Sweden’s most significant freight ports, the Port of Kapellskär needed to be modernised and made more efficient. A three year port refurbishment and expansion project has now been completed, on time and within budget. The Port of Kapellskär is now ready to receive the vessel sizes and larger volumes of the future.
“The Port of Kapellskär is extremely important for trade along the East-West axis and for sustainable transport in the rapidly growing Stockholm region. Measured in length, more than three million meters-worth of goods are transported through the port annually. In addition, almost one million passengers pass through the port each year. Now finally the prerequisites are in place for traffic to grow even more,” says Stefan Hansson, Chair of the Board at Port of Stockholm.
The reconstructed port consists of 200 000 square metres of logistics area, an entirely new pier with two quay-berths, a newly renovated pier with two quay-berths and a reconstructed quay-berth. Following the reconstruction work the Port of Kapellskär now has five modern quay-berths. There is also a new pilot harbour adjacent to the south end of the port.
“This has been long-awaited. Both the traffic through the port and the vessel service traffic has expanded enormously at the Port of Kapellskär and there has been a great demand to expand capacity. Now we have modern facilities that can efficiently handle vessels, cargo and passengers,” says Peter Lundman, Technical Operations Manager at the Port of Kapellskär.
“The fact that we now have a modern, large capacity port for the upcoming 100 years is also very important for the development of the Municipality of Norrtälje. Sustainable transport is extremely important for the growing Stockholm region and shipping is an important piece of the jigsaw,” explains Ulrika Falk, Chair of the Municipal Board, Municipality of Norrtälje.
The electricity, water and waste management utilities at the Port of Kapellskär have also been modernised. It is important to be able to offer sustainable services and this is one path to achieving Ports of Stockholm’s sustainability targets.
The Port of Kapellskär is part of the Ports of Stockholm Group, which has ports in Stockholm, Nynäshamn and Kapellskär. The Port of Kapellskär is located around ninety kilometres north of Stockholm, close to the shipping fairways of the outer archipelago.