Bari Ship Inspection: Ultrasonic Thickness Measurement at Berth

Inspection services for ships at Bari

Each service has its own page with the method, the class requirements and what the report contains.

Where gauging happens in Bari: passenger berths and commercial quays

Nearly all gauging in Bari is performed alongside. For ferries, the work is done at the passenger terminal berths during the hours between arrival and departure: vehicle decks are cleared, ramps are lowered and the team works along marked grids on the plating. Overnight services spend longer in port during the day, which provides more time, whereas fast daytime rotations allow only limited coverage per call. Cruise ships present similar constraints, with the added requirement that passenger and crew movements are kept away from the work area.

Commercial quays suit bulk and general cargo ships. After discharge, holds are cleaned and made safe for entry, and the team measures frames, bulkheads, tank tops and hatch covers. There is no large commercial drydock in Bari for big merchant ships, so owners usually arrange dockings at yards in Italy, Greece, Croatia or Malta, and a survey in Bari beforehand gives the yard a measured steel estimate. Ships waiting for a berth can anchor off the port, where an owner's condition check on accessible spaces is possible when the sea is calm.

• Ferry terminal berths — vehicle deck, ramps and ballast tanks of ro-pax ships gauged during turnaround between crossings
• Cruise berths — scrubber overboard piping, selected void spaces and ballast tanks gauged during a day call
• Commercial quays — hold frames, tank tops, hatch covers and coamings on cereal and dry bulk carriers after discharge
• Container and general cargo berths — hatch covers, cross-deck structure and tank readings on feeder and multipurpose ships
• Anchorage off the port — owner's condition checks on ships waiting for a berth, arranged through the ship's agent

Port state control and regulation for Bari's ferry and bulk traffic

The Italian Coast Guard boards ships for port state control in Bari through the harbour master (Capitaneria di Porto), under the Paris MoU. Passenger ships and ro-pax ferries are covered by the EU's rules for passenger ship surveys, and the owners of older ferries on the Balkan routes face regular scrutiny of structural condition. Bulk carriers come under ESP requirements from their first renewal, and port state control inspectors look closely at hold frames, hatch covers and coamings. A recent set of measured readings can answer questions during a boarding that would otherwise need an unplanned survey.

Beyond inspections, commercial decisions bring up thickness records. Ferry owners deciding between a refit and a replacement need credible steel numbers, and the EU Ship Recycling Regulation requires an Inventory of Hazardous Materials on ships calling at EU ports, which makes sale and disposal planning a documented process. EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime add cost pressure on older ferries and bulkers. On the Albania and Montenegro routes, charterers and sale-and-purchase brokers often request gauging records before agreeing terms, and a report prepared in Bari gives them a firm basis.

Since 1 May 2025 the whole Mediterranean has been a sulphur emission control area, so ships calling at Bari burn 0.10% sulphur fuel or run a scrubber. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it corrode quickly in service and are worth adding to the gauging scope at every docking.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Bari

A gauging job at Bari runs the same way whatever the ship type. The sequence below is what the superintendent, the attending surveyor and the yard can expect from us.

Bari Karol Wojtyla Airport is a short road journey from the port and has good European connections, which makes it the usual entry point for our teams. The ship's agent arranges ISPS access for the passenger and commercial berths and books any launch needed for anchorage work. Our technicians are Indian nationals travelling on Schengen visas, so we begin the application once the call is confirmed and finalise flights when the ferry slot or the berth time is fixed. For repeat ferry work we plan visas around the rotation instead of one call.

• Send the vessel name or IMO number, ship type, class society, the survey due (annual, intermediate, renewal survey number, CAP or owner's condition survey), the port and dates, and the scope you expect.
• We confirm the scope against the class rules for that survey, prepare the thickness measurement plan with frame and section references, and say whether the measurement will be credited to a class survey.
• Mobilisation is planned around visa lead times and the vessel's schedule; the ship's agent arranges port access, and the yard or ship arranges staging, lighting, ventilation and gas-free certificates.
• Gauging with calibrated ultrasonic thickness gauges: through sound coatings only where the gauge's through-coating mode has been verified on a coated reference, otherwise on cleaned bare steel, with every reading tied to its frame, strake and location on the sketch.
• Readings are compared with original thicknesses as work proceeds; substantial and excessive corrosion and any cracks are reported to the attending surveyor and the superintendent the same day.
• The final report is issued on the class thickness-measurement formats with sketches, a summary of locations exceeding the allowable margins, piping tables where piping was in scope, and the gauge calibration and technician certificates.

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