Safety zones for special transports introduced on merchant shipping lanes along Finland’s coast
For the first time, safety zones for special transports will be introduced on merchant shipping lanes in the Finnish coast. These are special buffer areas around special transports using the coastal merchant fairways. They will ensure the safe passage of special transports, such as LNG and LPG tankers, on Finland’s merchant shipping lanes. Safety zones will be established when needed in order to ensure safe vessel traffic. The traffic in these areas is supervised and controlled by the Fintraffic’s VTS Centre.
“The purpose of the security zones is to ensure a flexible and safe procedure for securing the passage of special transports. This is an operating model in which special transports in the fairway are given a surrounding safety area, which other vessels are not allowed to enter. While under normal conditions, all vessels are allowed to meet without restrictions, with these safety zones, the situation is reversed: no meeting is allowed without express permission from the Fintraffic’s VTS Centre. We will first adopt this approach in Inkoo, after which the aim is to extend it to cover our entire coast. The conditions for using safety zones exist already for extending the practice, but we will assess a more systematic need for repeated use cases in more detail next year together with the stakeholders,” says Development Manager Esa Kallio from Fintraffic’s Vessel Traffic Services.
In addition to special transports, safety zones can also be established for other vessel traffic. The Fintraffic’s VTS Centre will establish safety zones on a case-by-case basis when required by the traffic situation, such as congestion or some other factor that limits or endangers traffic.
“The use of safety zones is one of the means for Vessel Traffic Services to control traffic. When a security zone has been established for a particular vessel, no other vessel is allowed to approach. They will be provided with targeted information and instructions from the VTS Centre, which means that we will intervene in vessel traffic if a vessel gets too close to a secured vessel,” continues Kallio.
Safety zones only apply to vessels that are required to participate in the Vessel Traffic Service.
Safety zones introduced in Inkoo fairway as early as 13 October
Safety zones were first introduced on the Inkoo fairway, which is used by large LNG transport vessels as special transport.
In the future, a safety zone of two nautical miles will be established in the Inkoo fairway for incoming and outgoing special transports, within which other vessels not included in the operation may not enter without a separate permit from the VTS Centre. These permits are coordinated with the pilots.
Safety zones for special transports in the Inkoo fairway will be announced with a VHF message from Fintraffic’s Vessel Traffic Services. Traffic regulations regarding safety zones can be found in the Fintraffic Master’s Guide (Helsinki VTS sector 2) at mastersguide.fintraffic.fi.
Establishment of the new special transport safety zones will end the current total lockdown of the Inkoo fairway during special transports (Section 17 of the Vessel Traffic Services Act). However, the fairway can also be closed in the future if the situation so requires.
Vessels travelling through Inkoo should also take the new meeting and overtaking prohibition area for all vessels, between Inkoo 15 and Inkoo 16 – Inkoo 21 and Inkoo, 22 into account.
