ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE

RECOMMENDATIONS ON HARMONIZED
EUROPE-WIDE TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
FOR INLAND NAVIGATION VESSELS

Resolution No. 61

UNITED NATIONS

ECE/TRANS/SC.3/172

ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE

INLAND TRANSPORT COMMITTEE

Working Party on Inland Water Transport

Recommendations on Harmonized Europe-Wide
Technical Requirements for Inland Navigation Vessels

Resolution No. 61

UNITED NATIONS

New York and Geneva, 2006

NOTE

Symbols of United Nations documents are composed of capital letters combined with figures. Mention of such a symbol indicates a reference to a United Nations document.

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The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

RECOMMENDATIONS ON HARMONIZED EUROPE-WIDE TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR INLAND NAVIGATION VESSELS

Resolution No. 61(adopted by the Working Party on Inland Water Transporton 16 March 2006)

The Working Party on Inland Water Transport,

Considering resolution No. 17, revised (TRANS/SC.3/103, annex 1), containing in its annex the Recommendations on Technical Requirements for Inland Navigation Vessels as amended (TRANS/SC.3/104 and Adds.1-6),

Considering also resolution No.33 (TRANS/SC.3/131) on Ship’s Certificate,

Recalling the recommendation of the Inland Transport Committee that the Working Party should continue its efforts towards a full reciprocal recognition of ship’s certificates and should, to this end, undertake updating the Recommendations on Technical Requirements for Inland Navigation Vessels (ECE/TRANS/97, paragraph 104),

Recalling further the Declaration adopted by the Pan-European Conference on Inland Waterway Transport (Rotterdam, 5-6 September 2001) inviting the European Commission, UNECE and the two river commissions to intensify their cooperation on Pan-European harmonization of technical, safety and manning requirements (TRANS/SC.3/2001/10, point 12),

Believing that the harmonization of national and international (within subregional groupings) technical requirements for vessels applied on European inland waterways would be of great benefit to international transport by inland waterway, the safety of navigation, the protection of human health and life, as well as the protection of the environment,

Bearing in mind the report of the Working Party on the Standardization of Technical and Safety Requirements in Inland Navigation, on its twenty-ninth session in so far as the item on the amendment of the Recommendations on Technical Requirements for Inland Navigation Vessels is concerned (TRANS/SC.3/WP.3/58, paragraphs 4-22),

1. Adopts the text of Recommendations on Harmonized Europe-Wide Technical Requirements for Inland Navigation Vessels annexed to this resolution,

2. Decides to cancel resolution No.17, revised, as well as resolutions Nos. 10, 11, 23, 28, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38, 42, 50, 53, 55 and 56 which are replaced by this resolution,

3. Requests Governments to accept the ship's certificate issued in accordance with the annexed Recommendations as documentary evidence that the vessel complies with the Recommendations on Harmonized Europe-Wide Technical Requirements for Inland Navigation Vessels (as set out in document ECE/TRANS/SC.3/172 as amended) and to take it duly into account when issuing other certificates, if required, for given waterways. In this connection, technical inspection of the vessel may be wholly or partly dispensed with, in so far as regulations in force so permit;

4. Invites Governments to inform the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe whether they accept this resolution,

5. Requests the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe to place the question of the application of this resolution periodically on the agenda of the Working Party on Inland Water Transport.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Chapter 1 General provisions 1

Chapter 2 Procedure and rules for the inspection of inland navigation vessels 11

Chapter 3 Shipbuilding requirements 15

Chapter 3a Fire protection 25

Chapter 4 Safety clearance, freeboard and draught marks 27

Chapter 5 Manoeuvrability 33

Chapter 6 Steering gear 35

Chapter 7 Wheelhouse 39

Chapter 8 Engine design 45

Chapter 8a Exhaust and pollutant particulate emissions from diesel engines 53

Chapter 8b Prevention of water pollution and abatement of noise produced by vessels 57

Chapter 9 Electrical installations 61

Chapter 10 Equipment 75

Chapter 11 Working spaces 87

Chapter 12 Crew accommodation 91

Chapter 13 Fuel-fired heating, cooking and refrigerating equipment
(Left void) 94

Chapter 14 Liquefied gas installations for domestic purposes 95

Chapter 15 Special provisions for passenger vessels 101

Chapter 15A Specific requirements for sailing passenger vessels
(Left void) 124

Chapter 16 Specific requirements applicable to vessels intended to form part of a pushed or towed convoy or of a side-by-side formation 125

Chapter 17 Specific requirements applicable to floating equipment
(Left void) 128

Chapter 18 Specific requirements applicable to worksite craft
(Left void) 128

Chapter 19 Specific requirements applicable to historic vessels
(Left void) 128

Chapter 19A Specific requirements applicable to canal barges
(Left void) 128

Chapter 19B Specific requirements applicable to craft navigating on zone 4
(Left void) 128

Chapter 20 Specific requirements applicable to sea-going vessels
(Left void) 128

Chapter 21 Specific requirements applicable to recreational craft
(Left void) 128

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Chapter 22 Stability of vessels carrying containers 129

Chapter 22A Specific requirements applicable to craft longer than 110 m
(Left void) 132

Chapter 22B Specific requirements applicable to high-speed vessels 133

Chapter 23 Crews 137

Chapter 24 Transitional and final provisions (Left void) 148

Appendix 1 List of European inland waterways divided geographically into zones 1, 2 and 3 149

Appendix 2 Model ship’s certificate 161

Appendix 3 Safety signs and signals to be used on board inland navigation vessels 175

Appendix 4 Alternative manoeuvrability test procedures and criteria in accordance with 5-2.1 177

Appendix 5 Model of a service record 213

Appendix 6 Criteria for the approval of Classification Societies 227

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ECE/TRANS/SC.3/172

page 1

CHAPTER 1

GENERAL PROVISIONS

1-1 PURPOSE AND SCOPE

1-1.1 The purpose of this text is to provide recommendations on the design and equipment of inland navigation vessels with a view, in particular, to promoting the safety of vessels and crews; this text is not a substitute for national laws and regulations.

1-1.2 In general, these Recommendations shall, with due regard to definitions in 1-2, apply to: (i) vessels having a length L of 20 meters or more;

(ii)  vessels for which the product of is a volume of 100 m3 or more.

1-1.3 These Recommendations shall also apply, with due regard to definitions in 1-2, to all: (i) tugs and pushers, designated to tow or to push or to move alongside vessels
as
referred to in 1-1.2;

(ii) vessels intended for passenger transport which carry more than 12 people in
addition to the crew.

1-1.4 In general, these Recommendations shall not apply to:

(i)  ferries;

(ii)  naval vessels.

1-1.5 For the purpose of these Recommendations, European inland waterways shall be classified as follows:

Zone 1 (wave height of up to 2.0 m): the waterways listed in chapter I of appendix 1 to these Recommendations;

Zone 2 (height of up to 1.2 m): the waterways listed in chapter II of appendix 1 to these Recommendations;

Zone 3 (height of up to 0.6 m): the waterways listed in chapter III of appendix 1 to these Recommendations.

On inland waterways not listed in appendix 1… as belonging to navigational zones 1, 2 or 3, Administrations may establish technical requirements which differ from the provisions of these Recommendations. Such technical requirements should be adapted to the geographical, hydrological and navigational conditions prevailing on the respective inland waterway and should be equally applied to all vessels navigating on this waterway. It is understood, however, that vessels allowed to navigate on inland waterways belonging to zones 1, 2 and 3, satisfy the safety requirements applied on those unclassified inland waterways with the exception of the lakes Ladoga and Onega in the Russian Federation.

1-1.6 Unless otherwise stated, the provisions of the present Recommendations shall apply to new vessels that are intended to navigate in the navigational zones mentioned in 1-1.5, differentiated by the maximum significant wave height[1]/ corresponding to a 5 per cent probability of over-topping.

1-1.7 These provisions shall apply to existing inland navigation vessels so long as the Administration considers them reasonable and practicable.

1-1.8 The Administration may permit derogations from these provisions for limited journeys of local interest or in harbour areas. The derogations in question and the journeys or area for which they are valid shall be specified in the ship’s certificate.

1-1.9 Vessels intended for the carriage of dangerous goods shall also satisfy the European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Inland Waterways (ADN).

1-2 DEFINITIONS

Types of vessels

1. “Vessel”: an inland waterway vessel or seagoing ship;

2. “Inland waterway vessel”: a vessel intended solely or mainly for navigation on inland waterways;

3. “Tug”: a vessel specially built to perform towing operations;

4. “Pusher”: a vessel specially built to propel a pushed convoy;

5. “Towed barge”: a dumb barge or tank barge built to be towed, either having no motive power of its own or having only sufficient motive power to perform restricted manoeuvres;

6. “Pushed barge”: a tank barge or cargo barge built or specially modified to be pushed, either having no motive power of its own or having only sufficient motive power to perform restricted manoeuvres when not part of a pushed convoy;

7. “Ship-borne barge”: a pushed barge built to be carried aboard seagoing ships and to navigate on inland waterways;

8. “Passenger vessel”: a day-trip or cabin vessel constructed and equipped to carry more than 12 passengers;

9. “Day-trip vessel”: a passenger vessel without overnight passenger cabins;

10. “Cabin vessel”: a passenger vessel with overnight passenger cabins;

11. “High-speed vessel”: a motorized vessel, with the exception of small craft, capable of sailing at a speed greater than 40 km/h in relation to the surface of still water, when this is stated in its ship’s certificate;

12. “Floating equipment”: a floating structure carrying working gear such as cranes, dredging equipment, pile drivers or elevators;

13. “Ship’s boat”: a boat used for multipurpose application including transportation of people or cargoes as well as in rescue purposes complying with the requirements of the Basin administration or the European Standard;

14. “Flush-deck vessel”: a vessel which has no superstructure on its freeboard deck;

15. “Vessel carrying fixed containers”: vessels all of whose containers are fixed and having the equipment necessary to secure containers to the satisfaction of the Administration;

Assemblies of vessels

16. “Convoy”: a rigid or towed convoy of vessels;

17. “Formation”: the manner in which a convoy is assembled;

18. “Rigid convoy”: a pushed convoy or side-by-side formation;

19. “Pushed convoy”: a rigid assembly of vessels of which at least one is positioned in front of the one or two vessels providing the power for propelling the convoy, known as the “pusher(s)”; a convoy composed of a pusher and a pushed vessel coupled so as to permit guided articulation is also considered as rigid;

20. “Side-by-side formation”: an assembly of vessels coupled rigidly side by side, none of which is positioned in front of the vessel propelling the assembly;

21. “Towed convoy”: an assembly of one or more vessels, floating establishments or assemblies of floating material towed by one or more self-propelled vessels forming part of the convoy;

Particular areas on board

22. “Machinery space”: is the part of the vessel housing the main and auxiliary machinery. The machinery space can be divided up into a main engine room, an engine room and a boiler room;

23. “Main engine room”: the space where the main machinery is installed;

24. “Engine room”: the space where only auxiliary machinery, namely internal combustion engines, is installed;

25. “Boiler room”: the space housing a fuel-operated installation designed to produce steam or to heat a thermal fluid;

26. “Superstructure”: a decked structure on the freeboard deck which extends from side to side of the vessel or whose side walls are not set inboard of the ship’s sides by more than 4% of the breadth ();

An enclosed superstructure is a superstructure:

having closed bulkheads of sufficient strength, permanently so assembled with the deck as to be watertight;

in which the access openings, if any, in these bulkheads are fitted with watertight doors;

in which all other openings in the sides or ends are fitted with watertight closures;

The height of a superstructure is the mean vertical distance measured at the sides from the top of the freeboard deck beams to the top of the superstructure deck beams;

The length of a superstructure is the mean length of that part of the superstructure which lies within the length ();

If the superstructure is set in from the ship’s plating, the length shall be multiplied by the ratio of the breadth of the superstructure at the middle of its length to the breadth of the ship at the middle of the length of the superstructure;

A forecastle and a poop are superstructures which extend to the forward and the after perpendicular, respectively;

27. “Deckhouse”: a decked structure on the freeboard deck or a superstructure deck whose side walls are set inboard of at least one of the ship’s sides by more than 4 per cent of the
breadth ();

28. “Wheelhouse”: the area which houses all the control and monitoring instruments necessary for manoeuvring the vessel;

29. “Accommodation”: a space intended for the use of persons normally living on board, including galleys, storage space for provisions, toilets and washing facilities, laundry facilities, ante-rooms and passageways, but not the wheelhouse;

30. “Passenger area”: areas on board intended for passengers and enclosed areas such as lounges, offices, shops, hairdressing salons, drying rooms, laundries, saunas, toilets, washrooms, passageways, connecting passages and stairs not encapsulated by walls;