Port accessThe Port Authority of Bilbao has approved the proposal to substantially modify the Delimitation of Port Spaces and Uses (DEUP in Spanish), with a view to incorporating the new land surfaces created by the port works in both the Outer Abra (Central Pier) and the River (Udondo Basin) into this document along with the assignation of the corresponding uses.
On the one hand, commercial port use is to be assigned to the 100-metre surrounding stretch nearest to the edge of new Docks A and A6 on the First Stage of the Central Pier of the Port Extension, which will create a new land surface of 267,948.92 square metres, ,and mixed commercial port and complementary port uses will be given to the rest of the bottom and the rear surface of these docks, with priority being given to commercial use.
Commercial use is related to interchange between land and sea transport modes as well as to the development of port services and other commercial port activities. Complementary or auxiliary use includes logistics and storage-related activities and those corresponding to industrial or commercial companies whose location inside the Port is justified by its relation with port traffic and the volume of port traffic they generate, or the services they offer to port users.
In this respect, the Central Pier is expected to enable the setting up of mainly new businesses and commercial traffic that will reinforce their operational diversity, in addition to other associated or complementary activities, which due to their connection with the Port of Bilbao hinterland, need to be located inside the Port zone in order to attend logistics and/or operational considerations, but always in accordance with the essential need to generate port traffic.
The new land surface of nearly 24,000 square metres, created in the Udondo Basin at Erandio is to be assigned with complementary port use. Part of this land – 16,000 square metres – has already been licensed to Navacel with a view to satisfying conditions that guarantee their business development in supplying large equipment for the energy sector.
Port uses have also been modified for the rear area where the Central Pier commences at the extension of Docks A2 and A3, which affects a surface area of
some 98,500 m² and which in coherence with the uses destined for the Central Pier, would change from commercial to mixed-port complementary commercial/port use.
Finally, it was agreed to allocate the spaces occupied by the longitudinal protection walls or dykes of the wheeled access to Punta Lucero to port public domain in order to guarantee its stability and defence, with reserve port use assignation for the affected surfaces.
Once the previously mentioned substantial modification of the Port of Bilbao DEUP has been approved, it must be submitted to the procedures established in Section 3 and following of Article 69 of the State Ports’ and Merchant Navy Law, including reports from those administrative bodies with sectoral competences; this dossier must then be submitted as public information for a period of 45 days, so that once this procedure has been concluded, the dossier will be submitted to Spanish State Ports, who will then continue the established legal procedure by gathering the reports from the different ministries involved, until its definitive approval by the Ministry for Economic Development.
