Building a new pier and a new loading area, reconstructing the railway tracks, dredging the Venta riverbed, dismantling the old city sewage dike, then building a new one and, finally, landscaping the area — all these works were performed as part of the Pier No. 12 construction project at the Free Port of Ventspils.

The impressive scale of the project is well illustrated by the sheer volumes of the materials used: about 6,000 tonnes of steel for manufacturing the grooves, anchors and pipes, around 4,000 cubic metres of reinforced concrete, 19,500 square metres of jetty. The works also included extensive dredging of the river’s basin — around 321,944 cubic metres of sand were removed from a 67,500-square-metre area.

The pier is 460.4 metres long and its depth is 12.5 metres. It is designed to accommodate large Panamax vessels. The project deserves special attention for the reconstruction of the city’s utility network. LNK Industries first dismantled the old sewerage dike, which was located at the level of the Venta riverbed, and then built a new dike 23 metres below the riverbed. Two lines, 355 metres long and 630 millimetres in diameter, were built from one bank of the Venta to the other using a controlled punching method. Later, 400-millimetre-diameter working pipes were installed and connected to the municipal sewage system.