Smart Port Gdynia – innovation on a global scale
Among the system solutions of the Smart Port Gdynia project, the digital notification at the terminal, intelligent traffic management and the parking space management system draw attention. These are the conclusions from the speech of the rector of Poznań School of Logistics (WSL), EngD Bogusław Śliwczyński, at the Polish Logistics Congress e-LOGISTICS 2021.
The development strategy of the Port of Gdynia includes the improvement of freight traffic, the elimination of bottlenecks and traffic congestions on roads, the just-in-time delivery of freight, as well as the improvement of safety and comfort of transport for the Tri-City.
“The dynamic freight traffic in the port results from the expansion of the Outer Port in the Port of Gdynia, the expansion of the Public Ferry Terminal, or dredging the external waters to 16 metres and the approach fairway to 17 metres. It is worth mentioning the reconstruction of the quays and many intermodal terminals, both in the Port of Gdynia and in the Logistic Valley, that is a certain development area for freight transhipment and the location of the central parking for the Port of Gdynia,” said EngD Bogusław Śliwczyński.
Analysis results
The dynamics of the port development will undoubtedly impact the significant development of the freight volumes, the density in transporting these types of freight, and therefore the density of traffic on the access roads to the Port of Gdynia, within a few or several years. Hence, the Smart Port Gdynia project, which was implemented with many partners in the market, primarily required a specific analysis, comparisons of how it looks today and how it will look in the future as well as the forecast of the port’s development and the freight volumes resulting from the activities of specific terminals, their capacity and the capacity of individual storage yards. The forecasts show that the road traffic will triple, while the inbound/outbound traffic itself from particular terminals or on particular directions on the access roads to terminal groups, both in the eastern and western parts of the port, will double.
Operational purpose
From the point of view of logistic analysis and controlling analysis, the operational goal is to optimise freight transhipment, shorten the time for reloading operations, but also for operations related to the acceptance and return of the vehicle, its full service. Moreover, the dispersal of traffic saturation on the existing and planned port road network and the port vicinity, management of parking areas, reduction of external costs of transport and logistics services by carriers and operators, reduction of the negative impact on the environment (flue gases, greenhouse gases, noise) and reduction of external costs.
System solution
The Smart Port Gdynia solution consists of four integrated systems: digital notification at the terminal, digital notification at the Port of Gdynia, intelligent management of the inbound/outbound traffic at the port and management of a shared parking space (the network consists of 11 parking areas).
“The whole system is also the integration of the digital platform with the systems that exist in the area of intelligent traffic control, and therefore with the TRISTAR system in the Tri-City. In Gdynia, Gdańsk, in the entire Tri-City and on the main access roads, but also across Poland, we have integration through e-services and the appropriate bus e-service with the national traffic management system. All of this is integrated via the e-services platform, mainly the SOA architecture, i.e. the digital service-oriented architecture, which is used as the basic communication and integration platform,” explained the rector of WSL.
The Smart Port Gdynia system solution was compared with other intelligent solutions of this type in various seaports in Europe. The point analysis concerned three fragmentary analyses. It has been examined whether the solution is intelligent from the point of view of measuring and controlling traffic on access roads, but also on communication lines in the country where the port is located. It was analysed how the integration with the notification system and the control of intelligent parking space in the Port of Gdynia looks like with the target option – a large central car park for approximately 1,500 heavy goods vehicles.
The analysis shows that the system solution for the Port of Gdynia is innovative in entire Europe and even the world.