London Gateway

Résumé du document

Historically, most of the goods consumed in the UK were manufactured in the UK. Distribution centres were created in the Midlands, where land and labor costs were low, to serve stores in the whole country. There was no road congestion, fuel was cheap and the environmental impact of transport was not a major concern. Thus, road transport was prominent because of its flexibility and fastness.

Nowadays, the growing demand for imported products from Asia creates a trade imbalance. The UK and other European countries import much more goods than they export. In the UK, 95% of imports come via ports. The increasing sizes of vessels, especially containers ships, reduce the number of ports able to handle them. Therefore, in the UK, most of containerized goods arrive at the ports of Felixstowe or Southampton. Those Southern ports cannot grow as quickly as the traffic, so they are facing congestion problems. Some expansions are planned but the landside is limited.

Extraits

[...] The principle is to enable the tidal current to reach this site to create mud. A mud defence wall will be built along the boundary north of the site using material from the excavation works. A part of the existing sea defence wall will be demolished and the site will become tidal and subject to inundations at high tide. This site will permit the creation of new tidal mudflats. After this work, the site will be monitored, in order to be sure that the different species recolonize the new site and find some food. [...]

[...] These are mainly economic and environmental advantages. Port-centric logistics implies a port. The choice of this port has important consequences on the application of the supply chain strategy. In a decade, the UK saw the emergence of some port-centric concepts such as the development of Southampton and Teesport ports, but the London gateway seems to become the best representation of this new concept. Indeed, it can easily combine all the advantages of the first attempts with new dimensions in the project, which shows that London could be the best place for port-centric development. [...]

[...] Only 10 miles from the M25 Source: http://www.londongateway.com/ If we consider the air freight as well, the container terminal will be very close to the main airport passengers, as well as for goods. London Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted are situated less than 50 miles away from the container terminal. Then, as far as the maritime transport is concerned, the port will be able to provide its users a very good short sea service, with vessels call at East European ports, as well as British and Irish ports. [...]

[...] The access from the port to the park will be private so that the containers will be allowed to exceed the UK road weight restrictions. As both port and park will be under common ownership and management of DP World, its clients will only have to deal with one party. It represents a gain of time and paperwork for them. The London Gateway will be a multi-modal site with access to deep sea, short sea, barges, road, rail and air. Short sea will be used to join regional UK ports, Ireland and Continental European ports. Barges can be used on the Thames. [...]

[...] Besides, when containers are transported by road, they have to respect the weight restrictions applicable on the UK's roads. The tare of a 40ft container is 3,7 tonnes, which is heavy compared to the UK weight limit of 44 tonnes. In the case of the port-centric logistics, since containers are unstuffed on the port, they can be filled to capacity. Then, goods are transported in trucks, which allow an optimized consolidation of loads. Finally, basing an import centre in a port makes modal shift to rail and waterborne services easier. [...]