The Maasvlakte 2 cost benefit analysis terrain demand forecasts

Ports are considered crucial drivers of urban, regional and even national economic development. Their development and operations are closely monitored and evaluated by governments as well as private parties. This naturally extends to major port infrastructure projects like the construction of Maasvlakte 2. Per September 2008 the construction of Maasvlakte 2 has been steadily advancing and in May 2013 the land reclamation was officially opened. A large portion of the terrain has already been claimed by the three container terminal operators Rotterdam World Gateway, APM terminals and ECT, who will establish three new state of the art container terminals. Currently the Port of Rotterdam is in the last phase of a long process of land reclamation which, a 900 million Euro damages claim notwithstanding, seems to go seamlessly. This process, however, started almost two decades ago. Since its conception in the early 90s the Maasvlakte 2 has gone through years of planning, discussion, evaluations and eventually building. The groups that had a say in the process range from local businessmen to the national government. The ‘Planologische Kernbeslissing’, a procedure required by Dutch law for large infrastructure projects, was pivotal for securing governmental support for the project. At the base of this procedure stood the 2001 cost benefit analysis conducted by Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis and the Netherlands Economics Institute (NEI). This document predicted a terrain shortage for the Port of Rotterdam and the costs connected to such a shortage as well as the costs and benefits of land reclamation. Even though the prognosis of the port authority’s operating results was bleak the projected societal gains were clear and significant.