Musaffah Port

Musaffah Port (Arabic: ميناء مصفّح‎) is an Abu Dhabi Ports' port located in the industrial town of Musaffah south west of the city of Abu Dhabi. The deepwater Musaffah Port and Musaffah Channel include a general cargo terminal at the northwest corner of the Musaffah Industrial Area, as well as an extensive waterfront nearly 40 km long that is occupied by numerous private berths and terminals.[2] It's the city's second port after the establishment of Zayed Port in 1972.[3]

Musaffah Port ميناء مصفّح
Location
CountryEmirate of Abu Dhabi
LocationAbu Dhabi
Coordinates24°22′54″N 54°28′09″E
UN/LOCODEAEAMF[1]
Details
Opened1998
Owned byAbu Dhabi Ports
Type of harborGeneral cargo and warehousing
Size37,500 square meters
Statistics
Website
Abu Dhabi Ports

The port and channel serve the adjacent Musaffah Industrial Area and the industrial areas of ICAD I, ICAD II and ICAD III. A number of large commercial and industrial companies occupy the waterfront, including steel works, shipyards, rig construction, offshore construction and supply, dredging, shipping and construction companies.[4]

Developing Musaffah

In the 1990s, after a period of local restoration and infrastructural works, interest increased in developing Abu Dhabi's nearby township of Mussafah as an industrial centre. In 1996, the Abu Dhabi Seaports Authority announced a Dh2.4 billion development plan of the area, including the building of a new port in Mussafah.[5] In 1998, many medium-rise buildings, mostly for offices, were proposed, and a local police station was built.[6]

New Musaffah Channel

Built to provide a safe navigation channel with unrestricted air draft for vessels between the Musafah Industrial Port and the Persian Gulf, a US$411 million (AED 1.5 billion) upgrade deepwater Musaffah Channel was completed and handed over to Abu Dhabi Ports in February 2011, nearly doubling the channel depth after dredging more than six million cubic metres of sand. The new channel replaced the existing access channel to the Mussafah Industrial Area. Located off the south-western shoreline of Hudayriat Island, the 53 km channel was built to better serve the Mussafah Industrial Zone and the future ICAD areas.[7]

The port facility provides for cargo operations and warehousing for a wide range of clients.[8] A new tunnel of 280 m length links the airport with Musaffah.[9] The Musaffah Channel is a man-made canal,[10] with gypsum crystals described as large and bladed.[11] The banks at the eastern end of the Musaffah Channel reportedly have "Pleistocene reworked dune deposits, unconformably overlain by Holocene carbonates and sabkha evaporates".[12] The channel's inner reaches are situated approximately 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) inland from the location of the present-day lagoon. The port has a 342 metres (1,122 ft) long main quay and two 40 metres (130 ft) long side quays and covers an area of 37,500 square metres (404,000 sq ft). The depth of draft is 11 metres (36 ft) at the port and is linked with the new Musaffah Channel (a channel dredged 9 metres (30 ft) below the datum) which is about 53 kilometres (33 mi) in length.[8]

By 2016, Etihad Rail, the United Arab Emirates's national railway, is expected to launch a 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) railway network across the emirates.[13] The first stage would be a 270 kilometres (170 mi) freight line, linking Ruwais to the Shah gas field, in cooperation with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.[14]

Beyond the first stage, the next priority is connecting the railway to Mussafah, to the Persian Gulf ports of Khalifa Port and Jebel Ali Port as well as the Saudi and Omani borders.[15]

In April 2013, Etihad Rail received the first two of seven locomotives to be shipped to the UAE at Musaffah Port. The two locomotives were the first stock to arrive since the delivery of the company’s wagons in December 2012, together with which will form the UAE’s first trains.[16]

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See also
  • Al Ain
  • Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE.
  • Khalifa Port, the state-of-the art gateway to Abu Dhabi which handles all of the emirate’s container traffic; the only semi-automated container terminal in the Middle East.
  • Kizad, one of the world's largest free and non-free industrial zones.
  • Zayed Port, the port of Abu Dhabi city.

References
  1. "UNLOCODE (AE) - UNITED ARAB EMIRATES". service.unece.org. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  2. "About Mussafah Industrial Area completed". Dzoom.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-31. Retrieved 2013-06-23.
  3. "Sheikh Zayed Inaugurates Zayed Port", Abu Dhabi Media. Retrieved 2013-06-23
  4. "Harbour Master Overview: Musaffah Port". ADPC. Archived from the original on 2013-12-16. Retrieved 2013-06-23.
  5. Trident Press Staff (1996). UAE Yearbook. Trident Press. p. 138. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
  6. MEED. 42. Economic East Economic Digest. 1998.
  7. "Dh1.5b Mussafah channel project becomes reality". Gulf News. 2011-02-03. Retrieved 2013-06-23.
  8. "About Mussafah Port". Abu Dhabi Terminals. Archived from the original on 30 June 2013. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
  9. Ibrahim Al Abed, Peter Hellyer, Peter Vine; Ibrahim Al-Abed; Paula Vine; Peter Hellyer (1 December 2004). The United Arab Emirates Yearbook 2005. Trident Press Ltd. pp. 190–. ISBN 978-1-900724-89-0.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. Advances in Carbonic Acid Research and Application: 2011 Edition: ScholarlyBrief. ScholarlyEditions. 9 January 2012. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-4649-2328-9.
  11. Kendall, Christopher G. St C.; Alsharhan, Abdulrahman (18 February 2011). Quaternary carbonate and evaporite sedimentary facies and their ancient analogues: A Tribute to Douglas James Shearman (Special Publication 43 of the IAS). John Wiley & Sons. pp. 515–. ISBN 978-1-4443-9231-9.
  12. Wright, V. Paul; Burchette, Trevor P. (1998). Carbonate ramps. Geological Society. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-86239-025-6.
  13. "RZD plans to bid for railway projects in UAE and Brazil". Retrieved 2013-06-23.
  14. "UAE's Union Railway To Tap Interest For $11B Rail Project". Archived from the original on January 18, 2012. Retrieved 2010-09-11.
  15. "Rail Project Plan". Etihad Rail website. Retrieved 2013-06-23.
  16. "UAE welcomes first 'Etihad Rail' train at Mussafah Port". 7 Days Abu Dhabi. Archived from the original on 2013-06-24. Retrieved 2013-06-23.
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