At a city council meeting in 2018, Harbor Manager Jørgen Buhl promised the municipal board of Lolland Municipality that the work to straighten and deepen the navigation channel through Nakskov Fjord could be completed by 2020. Things didn’t quite turn out that way. But now—after six years of waiting—the work can at least get underway.
The Environmental and Food Appeals Board has rejected the complaint lodged by the Citizen Group Against Dredging, regarding the permit issued by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency back in April, which allows Nakskov Harbor to deposit dredged sediment in the Langelandsbæltet. This means the project can now finally be realized.
A very, very happy harbor manager
– I am very, very happy. And I’m especially pleased that there isn’t a single flaw in our preparatory work. Our consultants have been truly exceptional. This process has been very different, and other cases were apparently prioritized over ours. But it’s the authorities who can learn from this case, not us, says Jørgen Buhl.
The channel project is expected to take two years to complete. Initially, it was estimated to cost around 40 million kroner, but over the six years of administrative delays, costs have risen significantly. The final price will likely be closer to 80 million kroner, though it’s too early to say precisely, explains Jørgen Buhl:
– What I can say is that we have spent three million kroner on preliminary studies, says the harbor manager.
Project to go out for tender
The project must now be put out to tender. In reality, there are only a handful of specialist companies capable of bidding on a project of this nature, which requires both custom-built excavators and specialized expertise. Nakskov Harbor had also prepared tender materials when the project originally launched in 2018, but those have since become outdated, so new documents will need to be prepared. If the work is to start this year, the tender process must now proceed swiftly.
