On behalf of the Harbour master we kindly inform you of the following.
To ensure that the impact of extreme weather has as little influence as possible on traffic planning and contributes to safety within the port, the harbour master has a set of tools at his disposal. A good overview of the available tools and resources to ensure safety in the port can be of great help. This can include the use of Shoretension, tugs in the side of ships, but also the timely scaling down or stopping of traffic.
“An example of the extreme weather is the last code Red from the KNMI of 18 February 2022, which included strong wind peaks. During this storm, voyages were planned where the service providers subsequently indicated that the ships would have been better off staying alongside. Not that things went wrong, but because the towing services were needed for other ships to keep them alongside they were also tough voyages for the service providers. We as the Harbour Master’s Division (DHMR) have to ask ourselves whether we should allow these voyages with an increased risk, to continue. As the storm built up, all tugs, including a number of push boats, were eventually deployed in the harbour to keep ships alongside and no more voyages could be planned. This raised the question of whether DHMR should not decide at an earlier stage that traffic planning should be stopped?”
This example shows that we need to work more proactively to prevent ad-hoc situations from arising as much as possible for which we do not always have an immediate solution. A procedure has been drawn up for this purpose. In order to inform the port user as early as possible about the expected situation and to guarantee maximum safety in the port. Below is a summary of this procedure.
Working procedure
When a wind forecast of 15 m/s or more is measured on the North Pier , consultation will be held with the Nautical Service Providers (NSP) 36 hours, 24 hours and 12 hours in advance. During these meetings the capacity of the NSP and the situation in the port are discussed. In other words, what are the vessels at risk with regard to the predicted wind (direction) and where are tugboats expected to go when pushing and/or where should extra Shoretension be used. This is followed by coordination with the agent as to whether a vessel will use these resources or whether it will depart earlier.
A Port Information Notice (PIN) will be sent out within 24 hours so that everyone in the port can be aware that strong winds are expected.
6 hours before the wind forecast will be the last moment to order large ships to be able to leave safely. From 6 hours before the wind forecast, the HCC will also update the overview of the capacity with the NSP in order to align the incoming and outgoing process with the remaining capacity of the NSP.
From 17.2 m/s the Duty Officer Traffic is responsible for the coordination of the planning. He/she determines the order of incoming and outgoing vessels in consultation with the NSP. A total capacity regulation applies to all service providers. Further scaling down of incoming and outgoing vessels is initiated by the Duty Officer Traffic at the HCC, whereby any queue of waiting vessels is processed in accordance with the work procedure, whereby each newly entered vessel joins the back of the queue (is placed as “waiting” by the HCC) until the entire queue has been cleared.
Stop traffic planning
In order to stop the traffic planning, we determine together with the NSP under which circumstances it is no longer possible to perform their tasks safely. The focus here is on extreme wind, rain, thunderstorms but can also be focused on winter weather conditions such as black ice, snow and hail. Ultimately, the Duty Officer Traffic decides whether and when the traffic planning will be stopped. In this, we look at the limitations of the various service providers:
Traffic management will stop in any case at Code Red of the KNMI. This is announced at strong wind gusts on the coast of at least 120 km/h (33.3 m/s) and inland at least 100 km/h (27.8 m/s). Or if there are insufficient NSP left to be used for traffic planning.
Back to normal
After the storm has blown over and the wave height decreases, the ships that are waiting will have to be deployed again. The principle here is that the ship who waits longest will be ordered first. Tidal vessels that are in risk of missing a tide have priority. Newly ordered ships close at the back of the queue.