{AIVP} International Association Cities and Ports - Valencia, responsibility at the heart of development

Author: AIVP
On sale date: Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Type of document: Project
Location: Europe : Spain : Valence
Language: English, French, Spanish

The location of the Port of Valencia makes it a natural port of entry for Spain and the Spanish capital. This constitutes an advantage which public authorities and private investors have been able to exploit, making it the top Spanish port for containers. The port has thus enjoyed spectacular growth, more than doubling its traffic between 2000 and 2007, when it reached 53.6 million tons of cargo handled. The container sector has grown at the same rate, reaching the symbolic figure of 3 million TEU, twice the number recorded in 2001. Despite the first signs of the impact of the world crisis on the Spanish economy, the mid-year figures for 2008 indicated a further growth in container traffic of 9.72 %. This resilience is explained in part by the double card of transhipment and deep-sea traffic played by the port authorities and their partners.

One of these is MSC, and the opening of their dedicated terminal in 2006 will certainly have contributed to the development of port activities, even if the principal operator of the port - Maritima Valenciana - saw a slow-down in its activity over the same period. The other big public container terminal, TCV, after years of double-figure growth, has still shown a growth of 7 % for 2008. It has been the principal object of the modernisation work on the port. Ships of up to 10,000 TEU can berth – a not insignificant advantage which will be exploited by one of its major clients, China Shipping, whose 8,500 TEU vessels already use the Levante quay and which has announced ships of 9,600 TEU. By the end of 2008, this terminal should have available an additional extension of 5 hectares, bringing its capacity up to 1.2 million TEU.

A reorganisation of port spaces will likewise lead to the transfer of the Grimaldi and Ford terminals (460,000 vehicles handled in 2007) to a new ro-ro terminal of 31 hectares on the new quay Dique del Este, releasing more space for containers.

The objective is to expand container capacity to 4 million TEU by 2015, and 8 million in the long term. A new call for tenders should be launched at the end of 2008 for the concession of some 100 hectares of a new deep-water (18 m) container terminal. The first phase is programmed for 2012. A further 70 hectares may be added if market conditions permit.

In more global terms, the 2015 strategic plan for the 3 ports managed by Valenciaport – Valencia, Sagunto (12 km further south) and Gandia (60 km to the north) – proposes a concentration of container activities in Valencia, while dedicating Sagunto to Short Sea traffic, car traffic and other general and bulk cargoes. This is the case notably of the LNG terminal which has been established at Sagunto since 2006, and the 2 car terminals which have been let on concession at the same port, one of 20 hectares to Toyota (for 20 years), the other of 27 hectares to Bergé Maritima (30 years).

It is obvious that this strategy to confirm the leadership of Valencia is based on intermodal services and the reinforcement of its logistical capacity. This ambition supposes the development in particular of its rail connections to serve Spanish territory, via Madrid and Aragon, and more generally to Europe and the Mediterranean through its link to the Mediterranean rail corridor. It can also count on the Parque Logístico de Valencia (PLV), a real "transport city" established at Ribarroja which will create 3,000 jobs.

2015 strategic plan, Port of Valencia© Valenciaport

In parallel with the city, which has implemented an Agenda 21, the Port has embarked on a voluntary environmental strategy to reduce the impact of its activities. This strategy embraces a number of fronts and has been recognised in particular with different certification : PERS certification delivered by the ESPO, ISO 14000 certification and, at the beginning of 2008, by the EMAS certification granted by the European Union. A number of projects have in fact been developed in the framework of European programmes and funding (Programme Life in particular). This has been the case notably with the Ecoport project concentrating on the environmental management of port activities.
One of these will be of particular interest to urban and port authorities which are members of the IACP: the SYMPIC project, devoted to the management of the environmental impact of port activities at the city-port interface. The objective of this programme, running in the port-cities of Livorno (Italy), Toulon (France) and Valencia 'Spain) is to co-ordinate the environmental management processes set up in port and urban contexts, and to develop common initiatives for the city-port interface. A collaboration agreement in this respect between the port and the city of Valencia was officially validated last spring. The objective announced is also that of making citizens aware of these problems and the actions which will be set in train, through public meetings, debates, surveys etc. This public will to participate is in the same spirit as the step towards social responsibility of the port authorities.

It is a will to integrate into the life of the city which also translates into support for many cultural or sporting activities (such as the first edition of the Formula 1 Grand Prix which was held this summer) but also a determined step towards city-port integration. In this context, the 32nd America’s Cup held in Valencia in 2007 fits into this double perspective.

First evaluations have estimated the cumulative impact of the America’s Cup at 2,720 million Euros and 73,859 jobs created or maintained. One million, six hundred thousand foreign and Spanish tourists came to the region in 2007, a 22% increase over 2005. The airport welcomed 5 million passengers in 2006 and the city’s hotel offer has increased by 150% in 10 years – a tourist attraction offered by Valencia on the international scene which should last. But beyond these data, following the example of other port cities which have been home to international events, the America’s Cup has also been the driving force of a change in strategy of the port and a re-structuring of the wider city-port territory.

Three complementary sectors for one will to integrate city and port

© Valenciaport

The Turia Gardens project was born in 1982. After repeated flooding, including a catastrophic occurrence in 1957, the river was diverted from its old, silted-up bed. The project, which was entrusted to the Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill, consisted in redeveloping the old course, over a length of nearly 10 kms and a width of 200 m, to form a vast urban park which will provide a setting both for cultural and recreational activities. In this sector, which extends up to the inner harbour, has been created a home for arts and sciences in emblematic buildings designed notably by the Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava: the Hemispheric (Imax cinema and planetarium open to the public since 1998), the Prince Philip Science Museum (2000) and the Umbracle (a botanical garden opened in 2000 which forms the entrance to the city), the Oceanographic (the biggest oceanographic park in Europe today, designed by Felix Candela, which opened its doors at the beginning of 2003) and finally the Queen Sophia Arts Palace (a concert hall of 40,000 m² with 4 auditoriums devoted to scenic arts).

City of Arts and Sciences© Valenciaport	Umbracle © Valenciaport
Oceanográfico © Valenciaport	City of Arts and Sciences© Valenciaport

In 1986, the idea emerged of an operation on the inner basin, with its old warehouses and port buildings, and this has become the Sea Balcony project. The housing of the America's Cup in this sector is its high point. This was an exceptional opportunity which was also a challenge for both city and port and for the various institutions concerned. It led to a complete reconfiguration of the sector: the reconstruction of the wharves to receive the teams; the creation of a completely new canal opening into the sea to ensure secure access; the creation of new services for existing port activities (a new link between the Ponente and Levante basins); the cession of certain spaces and buildings in the heart of the port to the city; the transfer of the port management; the creation of 2 pleasure ports totalling 750 rings and, at the heart of the port, a marina for super-yachts (42 berths).

Site de l'America'cup © Valenciaport

© Valenciaport

A landscaped park forms the junction with the sea-front and the Malvarrosa North beach, a sector which was separated from the port by a wall 200 m long and 5 m high, for which projects have been proposed since the 1990s: new hotels to meet growing demand, new access to the sea-front for the population and better links with the city centre (bus, metro).

In September 2007, Consorcio Valencia 2007 – an organisation composed of representatives of the city, the region and the state which was responsible for the creation of the infrastructure intended to house the 32nd America’s Cup – launched "Valencia del mar" an international competition for ideas for the redevelopment of another 130 hectares. The architect Jean Nouvel, associated with 2 Spanish studios (J. Ribas G. J. Ribas F. Arquitectos Asociados, and Tomás Llavador Arquitectos) and a German architects’ group, GMP, were the joint winners of this competition.

Their proposals, which are complementary, will reintegrate in a joint urban proposal programmed over 15 years: the Turia Gardens, which may be extended along the sea, the new city-port sector born of the America's Cup and the sea-front. In particular, Jean Nouvel intends to base his work on the wide proportion of public spaces (89%) which is one of the characteristics of this sector: preservation of open spaces, notably pedestrian spaces, and also physical and functional continuity with neighbouring quarters, while preserving the social mix. Opening out onto the port space and the working port is also one of the elements of his programme, not only from the need to reconcile urban links and port services with the nearby container sector, but also because the port is an integral part of this new landscape which is becoming defined in Valencia !

Sources :
Valenciaport : http://www.valenciaport.com/
Projet Sympic : http://www.simpyc.info/fr/
City of Arts and Sciences :http://www.cac.es/
Valencia del Mar-Marina Real Juan Carlos, International Ideas Competition : http://www.valencia2007.com/
Project of Jean Nouvel : http://www.valencialitoral.com/