Refurbishment works at Cádiz Metropolitan shipping terminal
Consorcio de Transportes Bahía de Cádiz has finished the refurbishment works of Cádiz Metropolitan Shipping Terminal for maritime passengers service. The works that amounted to € 2,763,000 were realised by Ute Felipe Castellano S.a.u y Ferrovial Agroman from August 2007 to December 2008 and consisted of:
- A second pier erection, and the alteration of the old one, allowing the mooring of two ships at the same time.
- The enlargement and some new arrangement of terminal onshore, that is totally adapted to disabled passengers.
Mooring is made against steel columns, instead of pontoon dock, which have been hammered into the bottom of the harbour.
Embarking proceeds through new metal sheltered gangways that connect the dock with the ship deck. The gangway height adjusts itself depending on the tide level (like the airport finger system), reducing the maximum slope during the low tide.
In this way, embarking process is more comfortable and secure, it takes less time, and passengers are completely covered from meteorological disturbances.
The shipping terminal is composed of wide areas situated under a sloping roof, where a big central hall is situated. At both sides of the hall, there are two air-conditioned embarking lounges, and five space units for ticket windows, offices, warehouse, toilets and a bike lending service enclosure.
The access and exit ways to the ships can be made directly from the central hall, through the embarking lounge (except bikes and motorbikes), or going around the terminal station inside. Each route is suitably indicated, and it can be modified depending on the number of passengers.
Each embarking lounge is available for 150 passengers and has a curved shape with tempered glass enclosure giving them a great luminosity. They also have seats, air-conditioning and arrivals/departures information displays.
Those works not only improve the travel experience of the passenger with additional comfort, easy access and reduced time for embarking/disembarking but they also improve efficiency of the service in facilitating manoeuvres of docking/un docking and reducing the slope at low tide and use of renewable energy for domestic hot water.