The investment will be around €5m and work is expected to be completed within a year.
There will be individual access for embarkation and disembrakation and a €1.2m boarding bridge will enable passengers direct access to the ship/terminal.
The project also calls for 230 long-stay parking places which also can be used by the general public when there are no cruise ships in port. There will be a further 31 parking spaces for terminal staff and eight more for disabled people, 10 for taxis and 40 for coaches.
Pullmantur's Empress has been using Bilbao for turnarounds this year and the port reports an increase in overnight stops including National Geographic Explorer, Sea Cloud II, The World, Crystal Serenity and AIDAbella all making the most of the northern Spanish city.
