Research in Finnafjord
Since 2012 EFLA has been working on the matters of the prospective Finnafjörður port with the Vopnafjörður and Langanes municipalities and the company Bremenports in Germany. The Bremerhaven port is the fourth largest port in Europe and wholly owned by the city of Bremen. Earlier this year, the company's experts came to the country and had interviews with experts in various fields in the country. On that occasion, the experts travelled widely in Iceland and performed work in Finnafjörður (Finnafjord) which is just south of the village Þórshöfn on the Langanes peninsula. The plans of Bremenports were first made public in connection with the official visit of the President of Iceland to Germany last summer. On that occasion inter alia the German Chancellor and the minister concerned in the Bundesland (State) of Bremen were briefed on the matter. The plans enjoy strong support.
On 27 August, the following parties came to the country on account of the plans of Bremenports: The deputy minister of economics, labour and ports in Bremen, Dr. Heiner Heseler, along with the head of foreign relations at the ministry, Christian Gutschmidt. They were accompanied by three representatives of Bremenports, the CEO, Robert Howe, the head of international projects, Uwe Will, and the head civil engineer, Ernst Schröder. They were also accompanied by the CFO of Eurogate, Carl Augustin. Eurogate is the largest operator of ports in Europe. Bremen holds a 50% share in Eurogate.
In the morning, the party flew to Þórshöfn together with representatives of the German Embassy, the district managers of Vopnafjörður and Langanes municipalities, the municipality's lawyer and two representatives of the engineering firm EFLA, and met with members of the local governments of Langanes and Vopnafjörður municipalities. After that, conditions at Finnafjörður were examined. After lunch, the plans were presented to 6 ministers of the government of Iceland and the region's parliamentarians in Reykjavík. During the latter part of the day, the party met with the President of Iceland at Bessastaðir. There is good support for the project by the government of Iceland.
Bremenports will establish a company in Iceland in the near future which will perform the necessary research studies and surveys in the area. These relate to the installation of measuring instruments on sea and land, environmental and geotechnical studies, to name a few. The research area is both on land and in the sea and the part on land is about 1000 ha in size. It is estimated that the research and evaluation work will take at least 3 years. The first phase of research will cost about ISK 45 million and take place in 2014. Various experts in Iceland will be involved in this work. Only upon completion of the research work, and assuming that its results will be positive, consideration will be given to the design and construction of port structures. Construction can therefore be expected to begin in 5-8 years from now.
The picture shows the group of experts on the site, Finnafjord
