Trucks wait for hours to deliver cargo to new Vuosaari Harbour

IT technology of automatic traffic control system suffers from initial hiccups

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A queue of dozens of trucks crawls towards the control gate 500 metres ahead. The road is bumpy with ice and snow.
      Helsingin Sanomat decided to test the new Vuosaari Harbour complex’s operations with help from experts.
      Jari, who took on the role of a guide, has been a truck driver for nearly twenty years. He and his colleagues have a lot to say about the new harbour.
      On Tuesday Jari’s visit to the harbour took more than six hours.
     
Currently we are sitting in the cabin of Jari’s truck listening to situation reports from other drivers. The tunnel leading into the area has once again been closed, and a kilometre-long queue of trucks on Helsinki’s Outer Ring Road (Ring III) causes congestion.
      In the harbour area the queueing starts immediately after exiting the tunnel. First trucks will have to queue to get to the waiting park area and after that to get to the control point. Finally there is a queue to get out of the harbour.
     
Truck drivers are furious with the situation. In the truck park, driver Pekka, who is waiting to enter the queue, frets about the queueing that has become an everyday event. “This is worse than the Russian border. I know, because I have been there”, he snaps.
      Director of the Vuosaari harbour centre Kari Noroviita admits that there are problems with the operation of the harbour. “There is one terminal there, where the control point does not run like it should. They have had technical difficulties.”
     
Earlier this week the bad weather and computer problems added to the delays. Towards the end of the week the area’s automated traffic guidance system with its IT-related problems has caused further headaches.
      “We have been forced to direct traffic into the harbour parks and the terminals manually. Now we have sufficient staff for these tasks”, says production director Perttu Piri of Helsinki’s largest stevedoring company Finnsteve.
      “Things are improving daily.”
      Around 1,500 trucks enter the Vuosaari harbour every day. There should be enough capacity to handle up to 2,000 trucks. “Under normal circumstances the harbour’s waiting area for 250 trucks should suffice”, Noroviita says and gives an assurance that continuous efforts are being made to get the harbour to run more smoothly. Even Noroviita does not consider hours of queueing reasonable.
     
Most of the truck drivers are already reminiscing with nostalgia about the Sompasaari harbour that was shut down last week. A visit to Sompasaari took 15 minutes. “Only very rarely was anyone made to wait in line there”, says Jari, who has dropped off cargo at every harbour in Finland.
      The drivers view the small number of lanes as the biggest problem of the new harbour.
      Both container trucks and articulated lorries have to use the same lane. Furthermore, when leaving the harbour one has to queue through the same control point, even though there is nothing to check.
     
Our waiting time in the parking lot is not too long. Jari enters the queue at the end of which the vehicle inspection takes place. After that he is shown where to drop off the container. Then we enter the exit queue. The entire visit to the harbour takes an hour and a half.
      According to the police, the harbour traffic has not inconvenienced the Vuosaari residents or traffic on the Itäväylä artery.
      The trucks enter the harbour area through a tunnel directly from the Outer Ring Road.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Minor hitches overshadow snowy startup of Vuosaari Harbour (25.11.2008)
  Focus on Helsinki harbour activities shifts to new Vuosaari facility (24.11.2008)
  Sörnäinen Harbour will move to Vuosaari overnight on November 24th (17.11.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat