This new Spanish standard specifies safety and security requirements, as well as performance and operating specifications for SPBBs, which are used to service all types of cruise ships and ferries. The standard is intended to improve fulfilment of the stipulations laid out in the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, setting specific and vital minimum criteria for safe, durable and practical boarding bridges.

For over a decade, various interest groups in the Spanish cruise and ferry industries have insisted on a need to regulate this type of equipment. Currently, there is no harmonized European standard under the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, the European regulation governing SPBBs. ADELTE therefore took the initiative in 2018 to promote the creation of a working group within the UNE’s Standardization Technical Committee CTN 27, with the elaboration of a reference standard as goal. This group has worked during two years under a consensus basis and the participation of all stakeholders: cruise terminal operators, cruise ship builders, cruise lines, certification bodies and engineering companies. 

The standard specifies technical requirements to minimize hazards that may arise during the commissioning, operation and maintenance of SPBBs for cruise ships and ferries when used as intended -even foreseeing the most common errors in use-, according to manufacturers’ or authorized representatives’ instructions. It also stipulates other essential requirements as recommended by port authorities, cruise and ferry companies, as well as cruise and ferry operators, terminal operators and engineering companies.

UNE 27800:2020 applies to fixed and mobile bridges for boarding and disembarking passengers to cruise ships and ferries. It is applicable from the interface with the terminal building or pier, to the connection with the ship, including the fixed tunnels that are part of a SPBB.