14 September saw the official inauguration of the new station and boathouse built for the water police unit in Aschaffenburg. The guests invited to the new premises in Hafenrandstraße included State Secretary of the Interior, Sandro Kirchner, representing the Bavarian Minister of the Interior, along with the Bavarian State Minister for Digital Affairs, Judith Gerlach.

bayernhafen constructed the building in line with the requirements of Aschaffenburg’s Water Police Unit and leases the premises to the Lower Franconia Police Force.

Read more in the press release issued by the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior, for Sport and Integration from 14.09.2023:

Today, the new station and the new boathouse of the Water Police Unit of the Aschaffenburg-Hösbach Traffic Police Force were ceremonially inaugurated. In his speech to the assembled guests, the Bavarian State Secretary of the Interior Sandro Kirchner, representing the Bavarian Minister of the Interior, said: “This is an important milestone for our water police officers operating on the river Main. Thanks to the excellent location and state-of-the-art fixtures and fittings, the two new buildings offer excellent conditions for our officers to work in. Even on the water, we ensure the highest level of security and safety.”

As Kirchner explained, the new leased police station is situated in the immediate vicinity of the new boathouse and is also located directly on the Main. It is equipped with several offices, a control room, an interview room and a recreational room. The boathouse was built from scratch, is twenty-five metres long and twelve metres wide, and offers enough space for the two police boats, which previously only had an open berth in the port. According to Kirchner, the Free State of Bavaria invested around € 900,000 in the boathouse and its waterfront dock.

The Water Police Unit of the Aschaffenburg-Hösbach Traffic Police Force is responsible for policing 80 kilometres of the river Main from the Bavarian/Hessian border near Kahl to the Faulbach lock, the area in and around the port of Aschaffenburg, the cargo handling facilities and recreational harbours as well as other waters within the catchment of the Bavarian Lower Main.

Aschaffenburg, 15.03.2023 – Despite 2022 being a difficult year, bayernhafen Aschaffenburg showed what it was capable of: Almost 80,000 truck journeys (around 250 per day) were saved by shifting long-distance traffic to the more environmentally friendly transport modes of inland waterway and rail. bayernhafen moved a total of 9 million tonnes of cargo and freight by inland waterway and rail at its six locations of Aschaffenburg, Bamberg, Nuremberg, Roth, Regensburg and Passau – at 1.8%, only slightly less than the previous year. The volume of goods handled at the Port of Aschaffenburg was slightly higher in the same period, totalling 1.38 million tonnes.

Rail handling at Aschaffenburg in 2022 amounted to precisely 683,986 tonnes, a slight decrease of 2.6% on the previous year. However, this could have been much greater in view of the prolonged unmanned DB signal box in Aschaffenburg. Despite equally difficult conditions, the volume of goods moved by inland waterway rose by a gratifying 4.5% to 696,865 tonnes, driven by the return of coal transportation. By contrast, the current lack of shipping capacity (about 120,000 tonnes) due to sales to Eastern Europe is causing difficulties. These ships mainly transport grain from Ukraine. Finally, 2022 was a year with severe and prolonged periods of low water due to the hot summer.

“Despite the challenges, however, we are seeing considerable interest and a fundamental willingness to expedite the change to inland waterway and rail for transport, not only among our customers but also among companies in Bavaria. This entails undertaking investments to counter the bottlenecks that have developed. To ensure that bayernhafen remains the first port of call, last year we initiated multi-year investments of €46 million in our port infrastructure – €9.4 million of which was invested in Aschaffenburg alone last year and €3.8 million this year,” says bayernhafen Chief Executive Officer, Joachim Zimmermann, who is also President of the Federal Association of Public Inland Ports.

The return of river cruises after the pandemic is also developing very positively, with 149 ships calling in at bayernhafen piers – a 75% increase on the previous year. The pier at bayernhafen is mainly used by ships that do not want or need to enter the Floßhafen directly, for example purely for boarding and disembarking passengers who are going on bus trips around the region. Despite the recovery, however, the situation for river cruises in general is still tense due to the shortage of personnel: previously many crews and workers were recruited from Ukraine.

Benefits of modal shift for the greater Aschaffenburg area

Shifting HGV traffic to other modes of transport is particularly important for the greater Aschaffenburg area. The share of heavy goods traffic here, as recently reported, is far above the average in Bavaria. Last year, bayernhafen’s customers were able to save around 80,000 HGV journeys in Aschaffenburg by using the more environmentally friendly transport modes of inland waterway and rail. This is also important from an environmental point of view, as 50,000 tonnes less CO₂ end up in the air as a result. The groundwork for further increasing this figure is currently being done in the port at quays 1 and 2.

Extensive investment in the future

Large-scale infrastructure projects are nearing completion at the Port of Aschaffenburg. Among other things, the quay walls at quays 1 and 2 are being completely modernised and a second railway track is being added to the quay. “Our projects are a prime example of how bayernhafen works hand in hand with its customers to modernise the port. We are significantly optimising the use of land for our customers. In addition, we are strengthening bayernhafen’s own trimodal (inland waterway, rail and road) handling facilities here in order to offer our services directly to even more companies outside the port in the future and to shift HGV traffic to inland waterway, for example,” says Alexander Zeiger, Head of Real Estate Management at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg.

Extensive building work is also underway on the other side of the port basin at quay 3. This is being remodelled with new vertical sheet piling and stabilised in such a way that in future it can be navigated by a mobile material handler, which will bring even more flexibility for bayernhafen and its customers. On the way to quay 6, in Stockstadt, the civil engineering work for the second construction phase of the Port Development Project West is nearing completion.

“We act as the backbone for the supply of goods to society and industry. The sums currently invested in our infrastructure, €13.2 million last year and this year alone, are not something to be taken for granted. In view of the rising prices of raw materials and building materials, such large-scale construction projects would probably have already been stopped in other companies. But, in this way, we will not only remain a cargo and freight hub that is key to the supply of goods today, but will also be perceived as an important and attractive location in the future,” says Anja Bokeloh, Head of Technology and Operations at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg

A home for conferences

Since moving to its new offices on Industriestraße at the end of last year, bayernhafen now also has a conference centre in the form of the “Alte Kranhalle” (Old Crane Hall) in Aschaffenburg. The historic industrial monument was lavishly restored and equipped with multifunctional facilities. “At this dynamic location, emotion and functionality, history and modernity form a perfect blend. The conference centre directly in the port closes a gap in the range of conference facilities on offer in Aschaffenburg,” says Alexander Zeiger, Head of Real Estate Management at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg

Aschaffenburg, 15 March 2022 – bayernhafen brings together a diverse range of goods and delivers the right infrastructure to meet the challenge of shifting long-distance traffic from the road networks to the two environmentally friendly transport modes of inland waterway and rail. In 2021, bayernhafen moved a total of 9.15 million tonnes of cargo and freight by inland waterway and rail at its six locations of Aschaffenburg, Bamberg, Nuremberg, Roth, Regensburg and Passau – a 4.6% increase on the previous year. 1.37 million tonnes of goods were moved by inland waterway and rail at Aschaffenburg, a significant increase of 12.2% on the previous year’s volume. This corresponds to around 200 fewer truck journeys per day.

667,372 tonnes of water-borne cargo and freight were handled at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg, more than 97% of the previous year’s volume. The decline in fuel transport was partly offset by increases in the handling of construction materials, minerals and earths. Metals, ores and agricultural products were also transported by water.

Very strong growth was recorded in rail handling, with a significant increase of 31.3% to 701,198 tonnes. This growth was primarily thanks to Combined Transport, which grew to 30,647 TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit), an increase of over 75% on the previous year. In addition to seaport-hinterland container transport, semi-trailers are also transported with great success over the Alps to Novara in the north of Italy. The continental and trans-Alp transport segments promise further potential for growth. Other important rail cargo & freight are raw materials, minerals and earths, timber, and metals and ores.

“At each of the regions in which we operate we act as a hub for the import and export of goods and are a driver of the regional economy. Our inland ports and the infrastructure they provide ensure the reliable supply of goods to the region as well as the shift to the more environmentally friendly transport modes of inland waterway and rail,” says Joachim Zimmermann, the Chief Executive Officer of bayernhafen. “This requires investment in trimodal port infrastructure and the concentration of logistics companies at the ports. That is why we must emphatically reject the idea of restricting functioning port land through changes of use in the surrounding areas, or using port land for other purposes on a larger scale. In the spirit of mutual consideration, any existing restrictions need to be minimized.”

It is currently not possible for bayernhafen to estimate the extent of the impact the war in Ukraine will have on the economy and hence on the logistics sector and international supply chains, whether on container traffic, agricultural produce or the supply of raw material for industry.

“As a hub for the transport modes of inland waterway, rail and road, the port combines the reliable supply of goods, the modal shift and environmental protection,” says Anja Bokeloh, Head of Technology and Operations at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg. “The investment in the maintenance and development of our infrastructure ensures we are fit for the future and a strong partner for the companies operating from our port. You can rely on bayernhafen every day.”

“Ports are always in a state of change. For this reason, building and investing are as much a part of bayernhafen as the linking of the various transport modes and the handling and storage of cargo and freight,” says Alexander Zeiger, Head of Real Estate Business at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg. “We create the basis for the sustainable supply of essential goods to the people and businesses in the region.”

Optimisation of infrastructure continues

In 2021, bayernhafen once again maintained the high level of investment it had made over the previous years, spending around € 7.2 million on the redevelopment of bayernhafen Aschaffenburg’s commercial sites and port infrastructure. Its investment projects include the redevelopment of Quay 1, which has been in progress since 2020, and the modernization of the port marshalling yard, which started in February 2021. To optimise the handling of bulky and general cargo, a state-of-the-art mobile handling machine – the LH 60 M HR Port – was purchased from Liebherr. In 2022, bayernhafen Aschaffenburg is planning to launch an investment programme involving more than € 10 million.

ENTEGA expands fibre-optic network in bayernhafen Aschaffenburg

After inland waterway, rail and road, a key role in the future of inland ports and the logistics companies operating from these ports will be played by the ‘fourth infrastructure’, the ‘information superhighway’. ENTEGA Medianet GmbH is developing the communication infrastructure at bayern­hafen Aschaffenburg. The Darmstadt-based energy and infrastructure service provider is investing its own funds in to connecting around 20 companies in the port to the state-of-the-art fibre optic network. The project will involve laying several kilometres of fibre-optic cable to deliver transmission rates of up to 1,000 Mbit/s. The expansion of the fibre-optic network is scheduled for completion in the spring of 2022.

Companies invest in the port

Pollmeier Schnittholz GmbH & Co.KG is investing € 25 million in a timber cutting machine and in a new high-bay warehouse for ready-to-use timber furniture construction components. The development was made possible through the expansion of the site directly next to the existing factory. The new site is part of the former power station that site architect bayernhafen converted for use for industrial companies engaged in logistics-heavy activities. This was achieved through exchanging land with a company located on a nearby site. Pollmeier uses the infrastructure the port provides both to procure raw materials and to deliver products to its customers. The new facilities are scheduled to start operations in the summer of 2022.

Alexander Zeiger: “As a result of the strong economic environment, there is high demand for the commercial sites at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg.” When choosing which companies to attract to our port, we will continue to pay special attention to those companies involved in the loading and unloading and transportation of goods by inland waterway.

“Quay 6 / Western Limesstraße” zoning plan legally effective

In the autumn of 2021, the zoning plan for the part of bayernhafen Aschaffen­burg located in the Stockstadt market community was passed. Due to previously issued planning decisions, the existing urban land use planning represents a “rounding off” under planning law to prevent the wrong type of urban development. The purpose of the zoning plan, which has since entered into effect, is to create the legal basis for planning the further development and to safeguard the Stockstadt handling site with regard to new companies settling at the port or potential changes of use that could, for example, be the result of political decisions relating to the phasing-out of the use of fossil fuels.

River cruise sector

In 2021, 85 river cruise ships called in at the Floßhafen and the new Mainlände pier at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg.

bayernhafen Aschaffenburg organises ‘The port experience – live’ festival

In 2021, bayernhafen Aschaffenburg celebrated its 100^th jubilee. It is planned to hold a major port festival for the general public on 10 July 2022. The aim of ‘The port experience – live’ programme is to open the visitors’ eyes to the diverse world of logistics and to demonstrate the importance of inland ports to the public at large.

Aschaffenburg, 22 October 2021 – For over 100 years, bayernhafen Aschaffenburg has unified the physical infrastructure of waterway, rail and road to connect the regional economy to the world. The port is also a digital infrastructure hub because, as the fourth infrastructure, the ‘information superhighway’ has long been of great importance to logistics hubs and inland ports. Data networking at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg is now to receive another significant boost through the expansion of high-speed broadband internet in the port.

At the official launch on 22 October, Bavarian State Minister Judith Gerlach declared: “Soon, not only will bayernhafen Aschaffenburg be the place where goods are unloaded from barges, but also the loading point for large packets of data! The classic transport modes will receive a major boost through the addition of state-of-the-art communication and data exchange networks. Cutting-edge digital infrastructure will help advance the port, the companies operating from it and, with it, the entire region. So, ‘anchors away’ for fibre optic expansion in bayernhafen.”

bayernhafen Regensburg has gained ENTEGA Medianet GmbH as its partner in the development of the communications infrastructure in bayernhafen Aschaffenburg. The Darmstadt-based energy and infrastructure service provider will invest its own funds to connect around 20 companies in the port area to the state-of-the-art fibre optic network. The project will involve laying several kilometres of fibre optic cable to deliver transmission rates of up to 1,000 Mbit/s. Work on expanding the fibre optic network is due to be completed at the start of next year. ENTEGA will work in close cooperation with bayernhafen to expand the network to offer complete coverage and connect all interested parties in the Aschaffenburg port area to the service.

“bayernhafen Aschaffenburg has 100 years of proven expertise in establishing connections that ensure goods safely reach their destination,” says Anja Bokeloh Head of Technology and Operations at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg. “This requires the right type of infrastructure: cranes, rail track, roads, handling technology – and also digital Infrastructure.” And Alexander Zeiger, Head of Real Estate Business, stresses the importance of the location factor: “By expanding the high-speed internet network, we are strengthening the position of the companies in the port and in the region, in particular in light of the challenges they face in the future. We are really happy that the cooperation with ENTEGA has enabled the expansion of the fibre optic network to start in our anniversary year.”

Frank Gey, the Managing Director of ENTEGA, is also pleased about the cooperation with bayernhafen: “Bayernhafen and ENTEGA are two strong partners dedicated to state-of-the-art, high-performance infrastructure. I am delighted that, through our high-speed fibre optic network, we will contribute to making this unique location, with its tradition spanning more than 100 years, into both the gateway to the world and the gateway to the region.” The Managing Director of ENTEGA particularly stressed the fact that the expansion of the fibre optic network in bayernhafen will be entirely funded by ENTEGA itself, which underscores the great significance of the project to the entire region.

In 2019, the Chief Executive Officer of bayernhafen, Joachim Zimmermann, articulated the need for a large-scale rollout of broadband internet throughout the port within the next two years. At the launch of the work on expanding the network, he said: “Strong, viable ports are essential for ensuring that trade and industry are supplied with everything they need. Communications network infrastructure is key to driving the digitalisation of logistics processes and infrastructure. That’s why we, as site architects, are committed to putting high-performance data networks in place at the six bayernhafen locations.”

To celebrate its 100^th anniversary, bayernhafen Aschaffenburg is hosting a wealth of special events, including the photo competition ‘bayernhafen Aschaffenburg – My Home Port’. The six winning pictures have now been revealed.

The photography competition provided amateur photographers who are interested in the port with the opportunity to discover new facets to bayernhafen Aschaffenburg and to paint their own personal picture – in the truest sense of the word – of their ‘home port’. Whether panorama portraits of the port, exciting snapshots or artistic close-ups, the search was on for the most beautiful photos of bayernhafen Aschaffenburg. It was also possible to enter historical portraits and treasures that had previously languished in photo archives.

As operations are ongoing across the whole site, bayernhafen established photo points exclusively for the competition to ensure that the photographers could work under safe conditions.

In total, 95 entrants submitted more than 200 photographs. Anja Bokeloh, Head of Technology & Operations, and Alexander Zeiger, Head of Real Estate Services, were delighted with the amazing response to the competition: “We are delighted about the wealth of creativity, inspiration and unusual perspectives that the entrants brought to the competition. Breathtaking sunsets in the port, exciting portraits of handling operations and stylish black and white imagery – the pictures show how diverse and fascinating the port is.”

This is the reason why the jury nominated by bayernhafen did not only shortlist five pictures to be awarded prizes, as originally envisaged, but chose from a list of six winning pictures. The six best photographs were chosen not only on the basis of technical photographic merit but also in terms of their originality and relevance to the port.

The six winning photographers can each look forward to vouchers worth € 100. In addition, the best photographs will be published in the anniversary compendium ‘100 Years of bayernhafen Aschaffenburg’ and in the Main Echo. Anja Bokeloh und Alexander Zeiger: “We would like to say a big thank you to the competition entrants for taking part! We hope you continue to have a lot of fun taking photos and keep your eyes peeled for unusual and striking imagery.”

The Floßhafen municipal pier in Aschaffenburg has been operated by bayernhafen since 2019. Now bayernhafen has started operating a dedicated pier for passenger ships at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg – with direct access to the Main river.

The MS Excellence Princess was the first floating hotel to dock at the new pier. Anja Bokeloh, Head of Technology & Operations, welcomed the 13-metre ship on behalf of bayernhafen and presented the captain of the ship with a small gift. While the passengers enjoyed their sightseeing trips in and around Aschaffenburg, the Excellence Princess travelled on to the next pier in Frankfurt, where it would welcome its guests back on board.

Thanks to its location near the Werftstraße on the river Main, the pier is perfectly suited as a transfer point for cruise ship operators whose passengers would like to explore the sights in and around Aschaffenburg by bus. This will take pressure off the inner-city piers caused by ship-to-bus transfers and reduce bus traffic in the city centre of Aschaffenburg. Due to its location directly on the Main River, the pier can be used by ships travelling both upstream and downstream.

With docking facilities for passenger cabin ships in Aschaffenburg, Bamberg, Roth, Regensburg and Passau, bayernhafen offers the river cruise sector five locations in Bavaria from a single source.

The MS Excellence Princess was the first ship to stop at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg. While the passengers enjoyed their bus trip, the ship travelled on to the next stop.

Anja Bokeloh, Head of Technology & Operations, welcomed the 13-metre ship on behalf of bayernhafen and presented the captain of the ship with a small gift.

Aschaffenburg, 7 June 2021 – In its role as site architect, bayernhafen develops and operates commercial sites to enable raw materials, goods and products to reach their destinations. The efficient combination of inland waterway, rail and road means the ports actively contribute to the modal shift – and hence also to achieving environmental targets. In doing so, bayernhafen also takes the requirements laid down by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the Free State of Bavaria on the protection of biodiversity seriously, consistently implementing them in the planning and operation of its six sites in Aschaffenburg, Bamberg, Nuremberg, Roth, Regensburg and Passau.

Ongoing projects testify to the consistent manner in which bayernhafen Aschaffenburg promotes the protection of nature and greater biodiversity in the region:

Compensatory reforesting scheme on 2.8 hectares in the Hübner Forest

Longer and more frequent periods of drought and water scarcity demand a healthy forest stock of deciduous and coniferous trees. This demand has increased the importance of restructuring forests to achieve a stable mix of trees. bayernhafen is supporting the achievement of this goal through the planting of around 14,500 trees in the Hübnerwald (Hübner Forest) near Stockstadt, where a total of 2.8 hectares of mixed forest have been replanted in cooperation with the Hübner-Verwaltung Stockstadt under the expert guidance of the renowned environmental and landscape planning offices of Bosch & Partner GmbH.

Alexander Zeiger, Head of Real Estate Business at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg: “The mix of native tree species is preparing the forest to face the climate of the future.” The 14,500 seedlings planted are divided into 8,650 English oaks, 2,175 hornbeams, 2,175 sweet chestnuts and 225 each of winter lime, wild cherry, service tree, service tree, field maple, French maple and black walnut trees.

Anja Bokeloh, Head of Technology and Operations at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg: “We at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg are contributing towards reaching the environmental targets in a number of ways: through the very nature of our business, which involves shifting long-distance transport to the more environmentally friendly modes of inland waterway and rail, and additionally through nature conservation schemes such as tree planting, reforestation and the development of the habitat corridor at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg. Environmental protection and biodiversity go hand in hand – and we are fulfilling our responsibility.”

Protecting biodiversity through habitat corridor concept

In the port itself, bayernhafen is doing its bit to protect nature and biodiversity. Currently, it is implementing a “habitat corridor concept” for bayernhafen Aschaffenburg. Connecting habitats ensures that animal species can survive – because when animals bridge the areas between the various habitats, they can establish contact and ensure their populations thrive.

Open land that is not used for commercial purposes is being developed to provide spawning grounds for amphibians and as habitats for reptilians, coupled with the creation of habitats for species such as natterjack toads and sand lizards. The core areas are connected inside the port through corridor structures running along the rail facilities and quay walls. To achieve this, bayernhafen Aschaffenburg is investing in specific structural measures, such as in the erection of protective fencing along roads and culverts for amphibians under paths; the preservation of hollow trees, creation of fallow structures, rock fills and deadwood piles as terrestrial habitats or winter habitats, and the establishment of spawning grounds. The experts from Bosch & Partner are also on board to provide environmental expertise and support.

Alexander Zeiger, Head of Real Estate Business at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg: “Alongside our core business – the development and management of industrial sites, commercial areas and transport facilities – we are also doing our bit for biodiversity, an extremely timely combination.”

bayernhafen eco-account

The “habitat corridor concept” involves upgrading suitable areas to boost biodiversity, such as transforming fallow land into extensive grassland. The eco-account serves as an instrument for safeguarding and providing offsetting and compensation measures in advance that can be used to offset any adverse impacts on the natural environment in the future. Klaus Müller-Pfannenstiel, Managing Partner at Bosch & Partner: “Eco-accounts increase planning reliability and can speed up planning processes.”

“Port In Bloom” for schools and kindergartens in Aschaffenburg

In addition, in April, bayernhafen Aschaffenburg gifted 1,000 packets of seeds containing the “Port In Bloom” flower mixture to schools and kindergartens in Aschaffenburg. Each little packet contains enough seeds to create a bee-friendly flowering meadow 2.5 square metres in size. With the help of the children, more than 2,500 square metres of land will be turned into a flowering landscape that provides food for bees. As well as benefiting biodiversity, the flowers will also bring a wonderful splash of colour to the city in the summer months.

bayernhafen Aschaffenburg efficiently links the transport routes of inland waterway, rail and road, and is the key logistics hub for the Bavarian Rhine-Main region. It makes a significant contribution to the supply of goods to the region’s inhabitants and businesses and provides local companies with seamless access to international transport networks. As the largest industrial and commercial area in the Bavarian Lower Main region, its 157 ha of land provide space for ideal growth opportunities in a dynamic region to around 60 companies with approximately 2,800 employees.

bayernhafen comprises six corporate locations: Aschaffenburg, Bamberg, Nuremberg, Roth, Regensburg and Passau – major platforms for the global exchange of goods that efficiently link the transport modes of inland waterway, rail and road. In 2020, around 8.75 million tonnes of goods were moved by inland waterway and rail. bayernhafen acts as a ‘site architect’ that invests in high-performance infrastructure and cooperates closely with the companies settled in the ports to tap new potential for value creation between the different companies and across the different port locations.

800 hectares of total port area and more than 400 companies operating from its ports providing over 13,000 jobs make bayernhafen one of the best-performing logistics networks in Europe. The operator of the locations of Aschaffenburg, Bamberg, Regensburg and Passau is Bayernhafen GmbH & Co. KG. The Chief Executive Officer is Joachim Zimmermann. The Nuremberg and Roth locations are operated by Hafen Nürnberg-Roth GmbH, with an 80% share held by Bayernhafen GmbH & Co. KG, a 19% share held by the City of Nuremberg and a 1% share held by the City of Roth.

Hübnerverwaltung Stockstadt am Main

Hübner are a cooperative of forest owners, comprising two forester cooperatives, the upper forestry worker cooperative, Oberhübnerschaft, KdöR, and the lower forestry worker cooperative, Unterhübnerschaft KdöR, which consists of 142 foresters. The two cooperatives manage 951 hectares of forest, amounting to just over 50% of the total area of the Market Community of Stockstadt (approx. 1887 ha). (truncated extract from the Hübner website)

Bosch & Partner GmbH

Bosch & Partner GmbH delivers a wide range of services to provide goal oriented environmental and landscape planning and is a pioneer in environmental research. At its four locations in Herne, Munich, Hanover and Berlin, a team of landscape planners, landscape architects, biologists, engineers and geographers delivers planning, consulting and research services throughout Germany.

Aschaffenburg, 11 March 2021 – bayernhafen Aschaffenburg brings together a highly diverse range of goods and shifts long-distance traffic from the road networks to the two environmentally friendly transport modes of inland waterway and rail. Even – and indeed, particularly so – in times of crisis, we must be able to rely on the steady supply of the goods that meet our daily needs and that companies in Bavaria can continue to deliver their products to their customers. In the 2020 financial year bayernhafen Aschaffenburg moved 1.22 million tonnes of goods by inland waterway and rail – a 3.3% increase on 2019, corresponding to around 200 fewer truck journeys per day.

Although cargo and freight handling fell by 6.6% in 2020 to 685,751 tonnes, rail freight handling grew by 86,641 tonnes to 534,106 tonnes – a significant increase of 19.4% on 2019.

Goods such as fuels, rail sleepers, timber, metals and construction materials, as well as industrial goods such as machinery and control cabinets are transported by inland waterway and rail. For example, Blasius Schuster delivers raw materials by block train once a week to bayernhafen Aschaffenburg from the sand pits in East Thuringia and Saxony Anhalt. In the other direction, the train transports treated soil back to Thuringia, where it is used to restore the open cast mining areas.

In combined transport, 17,278 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) were handled, 11.8% less than in the previous year. In addition to the transport of containers to and from the North Sea ports, in October the freight forwarder pe.tra transalp started transporting semi-trailers by rail. The new freight train connects the TCA container terminal in bayernhafen Aschaffenburg to Novara in North Italy, relieving the pressure on the motorway networks over the Brenner pass – by 32 trucks in each direction and round trip.

“Supply chains that work are essential for our society,” says Anja Bokeloh, Head of Technology and Operations at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg, “Functional port operations are indispensable, particularly in such challenging times as these. We join forces with our customers – the companies operating from our ports – and other partners to maintain essential transportation and handling operations as well as to carry out pioneering projects.

Along with Bamberg, Nuremberg and Roth, Regensburg and Passau, bayernhafen Aschaffenburg is one of the six bayernhafen locations. Even in times of crisis, through its skill in developing interfaces, bayernhafen continues to achieve its goal of furthering the modal shift, because the ability of the bayernhafen locations to efficiently link the different transport modes enables businesses to opt for rail and inland waterway as alternatives to long-distance transport by road. Through this strategy, bayernhafen is making a key contribution to tapping the full potential of the different transport modes. This takes pressure off the road networks and reduces CO₂ emissions.

Port infrastructure optimised

In 2020, bayernhafen once again maintained the high level of investment it had made over the previous years, investing around € 10 million in the redevelopment of bayernhafen Aschaffenburg’s commercial sites and port infrastructure, such as in the redevelopment of quay 1.

In February 2021, work commenced on the modernisation of the port marshalling yard. In addition to the redevelopment of the points and the rail facilities in the port marshalling yard, the mechanical signalling will be replaced with a state-of-the-art signalling control centre. The objective is to improve operational safety and flow along with a reduction in noise and acoustic emissions. bayernhafen provides ongoing updates on its website about the work it is carrying out throughout the numerous construction phases.

New companies

OWA Odenwald Faserplattenwerk GmbH uses bayernhafen Aschaffenburg as the central cargo handling facility to supply its factory with materials, investing in a new depot for storing its most important raw material, perlite, which is used as a natural filling material in the production of ceiling panels. Construction on the depot commenced in October 2002 and is due to go into operation in April 2021.

New pier for river cruise ships

The Floßhafen municipal pier in Aschaffenburg has been operated by bayernhafen since 2019. During the 2020 financial year, 44 cruise ships docked at the port. In 2020 a dedicated pier for passenger ships was constructed in bayernhafen Aschaffenburg – in Werftstraße on the river Main – in order to relieve the inner-city berth at Floßhafen of solely ship-to-bus transfers. The new pier in bayernhafen Aschaffenburg is primarily geared towards cruise ship operators whose passengers would like to explore the sights in and around Aschaffenburg by bus, acting as a practical extra opportunity to do so.

Protecting biodiversity through habitat corridor concept:

Connecting habitats ensures that animal species can survive – because when animals are able to bridge the areas between the various habitats, they can establish contact and ensure their populations thrive. bayernhafen Aschaffenburg is now implementing a “habitat corridor concept.” This involves developing land that is not used for commercial sites and temporary brownfields into biodiversity offsetting areas and transferring endangered species to these sites. The core areas are connected in the port via corridor structures along the railway land and quay walls.

‘Jugend forscht’ (Young Researchers) is the most well-known natural sciences and technology talent competition for young talent in Germany. ‘Jugend forscht’ has now kicked off the 2021 series of competitions under the motto of ‘Lass Zukunft da!’ (‘Let the Future Be!’). Once again, aspiring young researchers have the opportunity to develop and turn creative and innovative ideas into reality, to flex their scientific muscles and have fun exploring science and technology in the process.

Since 2006, the Regional Management Initiative of bayerische Untermain has organized the Lower Franconian regional competition leg of ‘Jugend forscht’ in rotation with Mainfranken GmbH in Würzburg. The 56^th regional competition for Lower Franconia will be be broadcast on 26 February 2021 as a ‘virtual exhibition’. The winner of this competition will go on to the state level in order to qualify for the national finals at the end of May 2021.

One of the sponsors is bayernhafen Aschaffenburg, which celebrates its 100^th birthday in 2021. bayernhafen Aschaffenburg, along with the inland port locations of Bamberg, Nuremberg, Roth, Regensburg and Passau, belongs to bayernhafen.

“We support ‘Jugend forscht’ because this is where ideas for the future are born,” say both Alexander Zeiger, the Head of Real Estate Services in bayernhafen Aschaffenburg, and the Head of Technology, Anja Bokeloh. “We support forward-thinking young people who want to achieve new things. Our planet needs people who have the courage to try things out and shift the boundaries of knowledge at a young age. We wish all those involved every success and a lot of fun.”

The Jugend forscht e. V. Foundation … … is a registered charity. Through its ‘Jugend forscht’ competition and other activities, the Foundation encourages young people to become interested in scientific research primarily in STEM (scientific, technology, engineering, mathematics) subjects and the natural sciences. The patron of the competition is the Federal President of Germany. The Jugend forscht e.V. Foundation is presided over by a board of trustees, chaired by the Federal Minister of Education and Research. The Foundation and the administrative offices of the Jugend forscht e.V. Foundation are managed by the Board of Directors. The work of the administrative offices is financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and additionally supported by the German weekly magazine, ‘stern’, which founded the competition. The various competitions are financed by corporate sponsors and the financial backers of ‘Jugend forscht’.