Original news was published 14 October, 2017

A special ro-ro ramp has been installed at the Port of Marseille Fos' facilities in Fos-sur-Mer

The new ramp is able to support convoys with a gross load of up to 880 tonnes, or 600 tonnes of load weight. It can be operated by means of docking or stranding, thanks to the installation of removable metal inserts.

The ramp, which measures 30m by 18m, has been designed as part of the ITER project and, as such, the Cadarache CEA will have priority use. However, other heavy haul cargoes can also make use of it when it s not needed by Cadarache CEA, helping Fos to diversify its customer base.

Project management was carried out by the Port of Marseille Fos teams in collaboration with the various funding bodies: CEA, Sosersid, CFT and Daher. The project required eight months of work and an investment of €2.7M.

In the next six years, the ramp will accommodate approximately 200 highly exceptional loads, among them the first toroidal field coil and the first vacuum vessel sector, both expected at the end of 2018. It has already been used to transfer rectifier-transformers shipped from China.

The convoys travel around 100 kms inland to the ITER site at Cadarache

ITER is a project involving 35 countries aimed at building the world's largest tokamak, a magnetic fusion device designed to assess the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy, based on the same principle that powers the earth's sun and other stars.

Cadarache is the largest technological research and development centres for energy in Europe including CEA research activities and ITER. It is one of the 10 research centres of the CEA (French Commission of Atomic and Alternative Energies).

The Port Authority of Bilbao has awarded the construction of what will be its number 8 ro-ro ramp to Astilleros Zamakona, at a cost of €2.74M, with an execution period of some six months.The ramp will have a load capacity of 250 tonnes and will provide on-request services.

*NEWS SOURCE