Ship design for the Midway Alignment project

The Midway Alignment of the Bothnian Corridor is a vital, year-round maritime transport connection between Sweden and Finland. The project includes a complete transport system for both goods and passengers and was initiated by the city of Umeå in Sweden and the city of Vaasa in Finland. SSPA’s experts are supporting the Project Management team during the first phase, until the end of 2015. Some of the activities that SSPA are closely involved with are the project analyses, the concept development and the design of the ferry.

Ship design for the Midway Alignment project has reached an intensive phase. The Initial Design of the ferry was completed in April, and it is now followed by a more extensive and detailed chapter, the so-called Basic Design phase.
– The first tests were performed during week 19 in the open waters of SSPA’s towing tank in Gothenburg, Sweden. The tests were carried out with a seven-metre model dragged at various speeds, while the resistance was simultaneously registered with advanced measuring equipment. The results were then proportioned to the actual ship with the help of standardized methods. This provides important input for further ship design and for the next phase in the Hull Optimization Programme, says Thorvald Hvistendahl, Naval Architect and Project Manager at SSPA.

The next phase in the Hull Optimization Programme was to perform similar tests with the same model in an ice basin. These tests proceeded according to plan and provided promising results. The ferry passed all the tests, and the collected data is now ready to be put together.

These results form an important basis for the continuing optimization and design work of the new ferry.

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First tests completed in the Hull Optimization Programme

Hull ice tests completed at Aker Arctic’s laboratory in Helsinki

Project Management Support to the Midway Alignment of the Bothnian Corridor