On Tuesday, the Port of Tallinn presented the refurbished part of its Terminal D to travellers. According to the port’s press release, the first to have discovered the new terminal were the passengers boarding Tallink’s shuttle Megastar at 07:30.
Peeter Nõgu, Head of Infrastructure Development at the Port of Tallinn, notes that the Nordecon construction company has done a great job and the part of Terminal D completed during the first stage of the overhaul can be opened. “Starting today, visitors of the Port of Tallinn will be able to enjoy modern and well-lit room appropriate for Estonia’s largest sea and tourist gate. The interior design of the terminal features advanced materials, natural wood and a light colour scheme.”
On the first floor of the building, the passengers arrive in a spacious atrium, and this is also where the store is located; from there, ramps bring them to the second floor with ticket desks and the check-in area. The third floor of the terminal is where only ticketholders are allowed. The windows provide beautiful views over the Old Town and the territory of the port, and the passengers now have significantly larger waiting and lounge areas at their disposal alongside a café and a store. Arriving passengers will from now on be able to reach the first floor directly from the third floor along a ramp.
The façade of the new terminal building is as impressive as the country’s sea gate should be – the glass façade with background lighting is covered with large wall panels and decorative mesh.
“The process of building the new part of Terminal D was rather challenging, mainly because the terminal remained operational and kept providing daily services to passengers at the same time. Still, any contractor would consider a project of such weight and importance, which sees millions of visitors pass through every year, to be a fascinating opportunity. The first stage has been completed, and approximately a half of the old building has been renovated with further construction works to follow,” said Marek Sööt, project manager at Nordecon AS.
“We cannot say that absolutely everything has been finished in the new terminal and part of the old terminal. A temporary solution for passengers’ movement to and from the ship will have to be used in the area completed by now. Old furniture will also remain in the renovated part for a couple of months, and the fact that the old part of the terminal operational so far will be separated from the new one with temporary partitions will have to be taken into account,” explained Peeter Nõgu. “A third of the terminal is still in need of reconstruction, so there will be some noise inside while people will still see construction materials and structures to be taken down around the terminal”.
Terminal D is being built by the general contractor Nordecon AS, and the building is to be completed in full by the summer of 2020.
The author of the architectural solution and interior design of the building is the architectural firm R-Konsult lead by Irina Raud. The structure and special parts of the building were designed by SWECO Projekt AS, and electricity, low current and automation systems, by Rausi OÜ. The innovative BIM (Building Information Modelling) method was used for designing the terminal and its utility systems.
The reconstruction of D-terminal is co-financed by the European Union under the Connecting Europe Facility project TWIN-PORT 2 No 2014-EU-TM-0087-M.