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>> The Port >
History > Iberport and Development Plan |
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OriginsCarril's ExpansionVilagarcía's TakeoffAdministrative Comission of the PortEffects of the War and Postwar PeriodIncipient Organization > Iberport and Development Plan |
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Iberport and Development Plan At the end of the sixties it is born a project of a big Iberport through the Company Iberport, mainly from Spanish capital: Liga Financiera (50%) and Cabana (25%), together with the Portuguese Sousa&Machado (20%) and the North American Odgen (5%). The company studies the possibility of building a huge port for the redistribution of solid and liquid bulks in the Iberian Peninsula; almost an industrial revolution, according to its program. After studying up to fifteen different options, Arousa, Bilbao and Algeciras arrived at the end. Arousa finally succeeds. The development company Iberport presents the project in July 1969 to the General Direction of Ports. A super port that would link O Terrón, Vilanova, with A Illa de Arousa, following the same line of the present bridge. The bridge would be built joining A Illa de Arousa with the smaller islands Xidoiro Grande and Xidoiro Pequeno. From that big dike, they would leave four huge piers that would have two berths for ships with 500.000 tons and the other two berths for ships with 100.000 tons. Apart from those, there would be another two additional berths for ships up to 350.000 tons and another two for ships up to 250.000 tons. This port infrastructure would be finished with a wide land-filling in O Bao inlet, where there was planned the construction of one or two tanks for oil products with capacity for a million tons each one. The project of the Iberport of Arousa is characterized for its polyvalence. It would be not only a terminal port but also a port for supplies. Big ships would bring commodities from all over the world and these ones would be sent to other points in Europe and Africa in smaller ships. The traffic forecast was between 1.600 and 2.000 ships a year, which would move tens of millions of tons. After several difficulties, the most hopeful and decisive moment for the industrialization of Arousa and the construction of the Iberport took place in the summer of 1970, during a reunion of the Consejo Económico Sindical of Galicia. The commissioner ministry of the Development Plan, Laureano López Rodó, makes then the following announcement: “The Commission of Economic Matters has agreed today (19 of august) to present in the next Ministry Council the proposal to declare Vilagarcía de Arousa “Polo de Desarrollo.” This measure represents the basic complement for the planned installation in the Ría de Arousa of a super port for the reception, storage and redistribution of commodities. We will make a powerful industrial complex, whose decisive influence reaches not only the Ría de Arousa but also the interior area of Galicia.” At last, the Interministerial Commission gives the Government the approval to make a selection process for the construction of a super port for solid bulks and vessels up to 150.000 tons. But the elimination of liquid bulks ends up becoming a final burden and the official announcement of the selection process sinks into oblivion because of its economic inviability. “Since it had happened in so many occasions –explains Villaronga in his book—the days began to pass, so did the months, and the selection process as well as the same super port started to sink into oblivion. And many analysts had already noticed this before. Stopping the traffic of crude oil, it would be very difficult that someone assumes the risk of building a port budgeted for several thousands of millions of pesetas just for solid bulks in an area with big possibilities, but having an industrial weave that, at least for the moment, was not at the level of those immense investments.” The project of the Iberport is still going to be alive during several years in different areas of Galicia, but the Minister of Public Works, Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, closes this episode in a visit to Vilagarcía in March 1977. Observing the bad conditions that the smallest port of the whole area present, the Ministry considers urgent and necessary the requested improvement works, at the same time that he considers impossible to undertake such an expensive project. “In Europe –says Calvo Sotelo categorically- no one is willing to invest a coin in view of the general economic situation.” In the early eighties, the transfer of powers from the State to the Autonomic Communities has a great importance for the Port of Vilagarcía in the mentioned historical context, since it breaks the port unity with Vilaxoán and Carril. A Real Decree of the Presidency of the Government of the November 27th 1982, establishes the transfer of 64 ports from the State to the Xunta, included all those of Arousa except Vilagarcía that continues being General Interest Port of the State. > Photographic Support   |
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| © 2003 Vilagarcía Port Authority | |
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Address:Acceso al Muelle de Pasajeros, 5 36600 Vilagarcía de Arousa Pontevedra |
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Phone:+34 986 565 129 Fax: +34 986 507 923E-Mail: sac@portovilagarcia.com |