In the Prinses Amaliahaven this summer, the first 500 metres of the total 1,150-metres deep-sea quay for the Rotterdam World Gateway (RWG) container terminal will be prepared for delivery, metre by metre.
Fenders and bollards will be installed on the quay. In some places, the salt water is already splashing against the new quay walls. The sites behind the quays are currently being raised, as a cutter suction dredger further deepens the port basins to 20 metres. The work is going according to plan: the first container ships will be able to enter the new Port in 2013. The fenders and bollards actually are the tip of the iceberg. There are extremely sturdy constructions under the upper structure of the deep-sea quay. The quay walls are erected with diaphragm wall constructions of 1.2-metre thick reinforced concrete. This concrete is cast to a depth of 38 metres. This means that the quay wall is twice as deep as the port basins themselves, which is necessary.
The quay walls have to be able to withstand the enormous forces that container ships exert, but they also need to be able to withstand the pressure of the soil mass on the other side of the wall; they need to be able to cope with extreme pressures from both sides. In order to withstand these forces from different directions, more than 200 55-metre-long MV piles and more than 900 35-metre-long vibro piles are being driven into the ground on an angle. At first the quay is completely enclosed in sand. The waterside has recently been dredged using the cutter suction dredger. This brings the port basins to -20 AOD. The excavated sand will be re-used to raise the level of other Maasvlakte 2 sites.
BARGE/FEEDER QUAY RWG
Things are also progressing well with the barge/feeder quay at the head of the RWG terminal: the concrete construction of the 550-metre-long quay for inland vessels and smaller container ships is ready. The quay will be delivered after the summer, following completion of building works and dredging in the port.
[mappress]
Source: Maasvlakte 2, July 14, 2011