Rostock (dpa / mv) – The expansion work has begun in the Rostock Seekanal. The deepening of the sea canal near Warnemünde is making a decisive contribution to securing the Hanseatic city of Rostock’s access to world markets and strengthening the city as a maritime location, said Daniela Kluckert (FDP), Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Transport, on Monday. The goal is completion by mid-2025.
The canal that connects the port of Rostock with the Baltic Sea is to be dredged over a length of 16 kilometres. The aim is to deepen it by two meters to 16.50 meters, which will allow ships with a draft of 15 meters to pass through.
The federal government’s coordinator for maritime economics and transport, Claudia Müller (Greens), sees the location as being of outstanding importance: “The port plays an important role as an energy hub, which will primarily supply the refinery in Schwedt in the future, for example, and as a hub for future energies a decisive role for energy security in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and all of East Germany.” State Minister of Economics Reinhard Meyer (SPD) also agrees: “Efficient seaward access routes and port infrastructures are important development prerequisites for the sea transport and maritime economy.”
According to the FDP member of the Bundestag, Hagen Reinhold, the construction could also be significantly cheaper than the 128 million euros estimated in the federal budget. The current order value is only 56.5 million euros, since powerful machines are used that are already available locally due to other large orders.
