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DUNKERQUE-PORT: CREATION OF THE NEW RORO6 CROSS-CHANNEL LOADING RAMP, A PROJECT THAT HAS RECEIVED EUROPEAN BACKING
20th september 2021

The port of Dunkerque currently has two loading ramps dedicated to cross-Channel traffic with Dover (RORO1 and RORO3). Today managed by the DFDS company with three ships, representing twelve port calls per day, the traffic is particularly important not only for the port, but for the Hauts-de-France region as a whole and even on a European scale, since the port of Dunkerque is recognised as one of the nodes of the “North Sea - Mediterranean Corridor” of the European transport policy.

While the RORO3 ramp, which was commissioned in 2005, is fully suited to current operating conditions with its two-lane double-deck linkspan, this was no longer the case for the RORO1 ramp. Commissioned in 1988, it only has a single-lane, double-deck gangway, and when installed was not designed for use with ships greater than 190m in length.

The situation incited Dunkerque-Port to consider creating a new ramp, RORO6, to replace ramp RORO1. The project, which represents an investment of € 43m before tax, reached a very important stage at the end of August 2021 with the notification by Dunkerque-Port of the Design-Construction contract for the works.

Given the deadlines for finalising the design of the project, arranging the procurement and construction-site facilities, the start of work will take place in 2022, with the commissioning of the new RORO6 ramp scheduled for January 2024.

The project has been granted a € 6.9 million subsidy from the European Commission as part of its Mechanism for Interconnection in Europe (MIE) programme which is designed in particular to make European transport flows more efficient.

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