By Gabriel Tabatcheik, from Agência iNFRA

Every year, hundreds of ships dock at the organized port of Rio, managed by CDRJ (Companhia Docas do Rio de Janeiro). They drive the economy of the entire country. Last year, considering all its terminals, the port handled 7.4 million tons of products, between import and export.

CDRJ is working to improve waterway access for all types of ships to the main port in Rio de Janeiro. To this end, it established a WG (working group) to study what improvements are needed. Today you will know a little about them, in the special report that the Agência iNFRA prepared on the subject.

The coordinator of this project at CDRJ (Companhia Docas do Rio de Janeiro), Marcelo Villas-Bôas, said that the initiative has the support of the Navy, the leased terminals and the pilotage, in addition to specialized consulting companies for the areas of nautical signage and software.

The GT has four lines of action: night navigation through the Cotunduba Canal, increasing the size of container ships, implementing the dynamic draft in Barra Grande and installing VTMIS.

The matter was discussed at iNFRALive - 110 Years of Porto do Rio, an event held by the Agência iNFRA and CDRJ, sponsored by Sindoperj (Union of Port Operators in Rio de Janeiro), Pier Mauá, at the Wheat Terminal of Rio de Janeiro, Triunfo Logística, Multirio Terminais and ICTSI Rio, and with the support of the association Logística Brasil (Brazilian Association of Users of Ports, Transport and Logistics). Watch the full text below:

Cotunduba

"Rio de Janeiro is blessed", defined Villas-Bôas, referring to the Cotunduba Canal. With a natural depth of 17.3 m and little silting, the route allows the continuous entry and exit of vessels at the limit of the load capacity - as long as adaptations are implemented. It is only used fully during the day. Some ships are already leaving at night, but this is being considered as a test. Of the three plans to increase maritime access to Porto do Rio, night navigation in Cotunduba is the largest of them.

"In the case of the Cotunduba beacon, we wanted to use the canal at night. Pilotage argued about the risk of night navigation. So we realized that, to solve this problem, we would need to improve the signaling", explained Villas-Bôas.

The automatic identification system, AIS AtoN, will help in this regard. In the implementation phase, it will make the radars aware of the presence of nautical buoys, even if the visualization is impaired. The buoys help the ship to trace its trajectory. "She has a beacon, a signal that is identified on the radar", defined the coordinator.

Another necessity is the sweep of the canal, used by fishermen and tourists frequently.

"You have a night traffic there, a fishing boat and a walk. Since you haven't spent anything there at night, the population, the fishermen, are used to this state of things", pondered Luiz Henrique Carneiro, CEO MultiRio and MultiCar terminals.

Because of this, speedboats from the port authority scan the channel before each night maneuver. The Port Authority has released videos on social networks dealing with the constant and nocturnal use of the channel in the near future.

"The video is aimed at fishing communities, at yacht clubs, at yacht clubs, saying that there will be [night navigation]. There is a whole alert process to make this passage, for now, monitored. To be able to make it routine later", said Carneiro.

Ramp up

These initiatives serve to bring larger ships to the port. The process is called "ramp up", an English term that means "constant increment".

"The ships are increasing in size, length and width [width]. We are increasing the size of the ships that can access the port", revealed Villas-Bôas.

Porto do Rio is totally free for vessels up to 306 meters in length. They are ramping up to receive the 336, which are widely used in services to Asia. These are in the final stages of testing for approval.

But the future is really with the post-panamax, 366 meters long super ships. Brazilian ports are adapting, but none currently receive them.

"It is the largest ship that passes today in the locks of the Panama Canal", reveals Carneiro. Porto do Rio is implementing all these measures to see the post-panamax in Guanabara Bay.

"Container terminal lessees have already offered CDRJ a channel project to receive these new ships. The next step would be to do a simulation, along with piloting. And it was scheduled to be done at USP [Universidade São Paulo], when the Covid-19 pandemic came. So we suspended it and we are rescheduling", explained Carneiro, who represents one of the tenants.

After the simulation and the incorporation of any improvements to the dredging project, there are the stages of environmental licensing and execution of the dredging work.

"As the ships are longer, it will be necessary to enlarge the diameter of the evolution basin to enable their rotation. It will also be necessary to widen some points of the access channel to the container terminals due to the greater width [mouth] of the ships , in addition to deepening it to 16.2 meters at the entrance and 15.7 meters next to the mooring berths. Today, the depth of the channel is regularized at 15 meters", said the CEO of the company.

Dynamic draft

The deeper a seaway, the greater the draft that a ship can use. Draft is the term used to measure the submerged part of a vessel. It is what is between the water surface and the bottom of the boat. The more loaded a ship, the greater the draft.

In addition, the legislation requires a "clearance" between the vessel and the seabed, in order to avoid accidents. Generally, it corresponds to 10% of the track depth, which means that it varies between one and two meters.

The other access road to Guanabara Bay is through Barra Grande (Santa Cruz). In it, ships can work with a draft of up to 12.6 meters. To improve access through this door, CDRJ is studying the project to implement the dynamic draft. The initiative is being approved by the Brazilian Navy and has not yet been implemented. But this is expected to occur by the end of the year.

The dynamic draft is a technology that takes into account a system with buoys that measure the meteorological conditions of waves, tide, wind and other variables. With these data, those responsible for operating the channel are able to calculate the maximum draft allowed at a given time. Instead of the maximum draft of Barra Grande being 12.6 meters always, in some moments it can be 13.5 meters, in others it can be 12.8 meters, or any other value, depending on these variables.

In practice, the system improves the "clearance" between the vessel and the seabed, allowing you to work safely with smaller margins, up to 50 centimeters. Every centimeter of draft allows a vessel to travel with more cargo, increasing the port's competitiveness. According to Villas-Bôas, the goal is for Porto do Rio to be the first in Brazil to operate with this system.

"We are competing with other ports, but we work to be the first", said the project coordinator at CDRJ.

VTMIS

Porto do Rio also works to implement VTMIS, from the English "Vessel Traffic Management Information System". It is an advanced maritime traffic information and management system. According to Villas-Bôas, the technology allows to monitor all water traffic with cameras, sensors and radars, recording all naval activity and allowing the system to "go back in time", if necessary, in order to check for any occurrence.

The initial phase of this project will be completed in the first quarter of 2021, with the implementation of the LPS, or Local Port Service. The system, which is the first step towards reaching VTMIS, will have eight cameras spread across Guanabara Bay: five on the Rio-Niterói Bridge, two on Morro da Urca and one on the Santa Cruz Fortress.

"It will start with environmental monitoring, which will involve tide gauges and a meteoceanographic buoy. It will also improve our ability to communicate with ships", summarized Villas-Bôas.