2024-07-23 19:23:14
The turning point in Lithuanian cargo shipping has already happened
“This is a breakthrough project 1.0,” V. Vinokurov is convinced. – It is a pity that during the fifty years of Soviet times, shipping, which was a very strong and practically the main means of transportation for both cargo and passengers, was forgotten. This led to such a situation that we did not have shipping, especially cargo shipping.”
According to V.Vinokurova, this project provided an opportunity to transport goods in Lithuania. However, just starting the project became quite a challenge, the interviewer recalls.
“It’s hard to count the number of hours and meetings I had to spend trying to get the Inland Waterways Authority to demonstrate the need to revive shipping and build the trust that was needed to get the funding and to make this project possible at all,” said V .Vinokurov, adding that there were even thoughts of abandoning such a project.
No matter how difficult the beginning, 2018-2019 at the turn of the year, the team decided to submit the project and soon received approval for funding from the European Union.
What’s more, the start of the project coincided with the coronavirus pandemic, which was also raging in Lithuania. There were fears about the geopolitical situation, about raw material stocks – at that time, logistics in the world were stuck and we had to look for where to get the necessary raw materials.
Then the question arose about the prices of raw materials – what to do with the increased costs? This is only one, financial side of the project. It was also necessary to put in a lot of physical work in order to achieve the goals and to modernize the river and install the canals.
“Imagine: this kind of work was done for the first time in Lithuania”, emphasized the interviewer.
Although the bunas that were built during this project are an old invention, and there were many of them in Lithuania during Antanas Smetona’s time, they were primitive and short-lived at that time. All the more so because the Nemunas, as the Lithuanian waterway through the Curonian Lagoon Kaunas-Klaipėda (E41), has not been maintained for decades.
Now 553 boats built in this river will serve even 100 years. However, even here it was necessary to turn one’s head, how to make this technology work in the presence of the current and the constantly changing water level, which changes even up to 4-5 meters per year.
“We are glad that with our help, with the advice of our scientists, with hydromodeling, the contractor and I managed to find the recipe for successfully building the buns,” said the general director of VVKD.
And what are buns? These are three-layer structures of stones and gravel in the river, which protrude from the shore towards the center of the river. They are built where they are needed, based on the data collected by hydromodeling.
Also, hydromodeling shows not only the location of the buoys, but also their height or position in relation to the current. When the buns are built, the river current in the middle cleans the bottom by itself, and the resulting sediment swirls and settles between the buns, on their sides.
It is also interesting that this project is also unique in its scope – about 765 thousand was used for the construction of 553 buns. tons of building materials, and the length of all built buns is almost 30 km.
“That way, everyone wins. Nature wins because the riverbed narrows and the banks are restored. Secondly, birds live there and it is a paradise for animals – fish and birds live in the buns and nest there.
Of course, this is also extremely good for navigation, because the riverbed, which is otherwise meandering, straightens and deepens. Then there is no need to clean very much every year, only in those places where it gets clogged, for example, at the Russian border, where, of course, we could not build bunkers,” he explained.
The buildings were completed in 2023. at the end, but since then there have already been changes in shipping. Already at the end of September, in October, cargo shipping in Nemunu started. “What we haven’t had for almost 50 years, until then there were only episodic, isolated shipments,” V. Vinokurov added.
He also has ambitions for the future
In 2021, VVKD started the strategic project of the Nemunas waterway financed by the European Union, and such an assessment meant a lot to the team. In addition, the “European Sails” project received a nomination for the great importance of this project.
“Especially earlier, we had to prove that Lithuania needed it. Such awards, when it is also a European project sponsored by the Ministry of Finance, are a very important evaluation of our work.
More importantly, this is proof that shipping is needed in Lithuania and that people believe and will believe even more that there will be cargo shipping in the country,” said the representative of the company.
The modernized 200 km stretch from Kaunas to the Curonian Lagoon has become suitable for passenger, cargo and pleasure shipping, but there is a lack of fleet. During the Soviet era, the fleet was destroyed and, as a result, there is a lack of new equipment. And this is an extremely promising field that is now experiencing a break.
According to V. Vinokurov’s calculations, one barge is equivalent to 75 tugboats that transport cargo now. One can only imagine how the same 75 would travel through Lithuania and create traffic jams, pollute the environment, and damage the road surface.
It doesn’t end there – there are still many goals and ambitions for the future. For example, a breakthrough is also being made in the field of electric ships.
“If everything goes well, according to our strategy, we in Lithuania will be able to have practically the first fully electric, CO2-neutral inland water fleet in the world. What does this mean? This means that those ships – the tugboats that push the barges – will be completely electric, and there is no such innovation anywhere in the world that can sail such a distance without pollution and with an electric engine.
We hope that the 2.0 breakthrough will allow Lithuania to become a leader in sustainable mobility and sustainable, green freight transportation not only in Europe”, V.Vinokurovas shared his ambitions.
We invite you to register your project in the “European Sails 2024” competition –
2024-07-23 19:23:14