Cost benefit analysis for improvement of the fairway to Halden harbour

Vessels calling at Halden harbour are presently using a fairway with reduced depth over three sills. The depth of the fairway outside the sills is sufficient for big ships to pass. In the project we have carried out a cost benefit analysis of lowering the sills to 12 meter to enable larger vessels to pass into the harbour of Halden. Halden has two major industrial companies that incur higher transport costs due to the limitations of the depth of the fairway. The calculations show that an improvement of the depth of the fairway should be profitable with a good margin. An investigation into the marine environment carried out by the Norwegian institute NIVA has concluded that there will be no environmental effects of improving the fairway by lowering the three sills. Even if the construction costs of lowering the sills are higher than originally stipulated, the project is profitable.