PORT & QUAYSIDE
Dutch North Sea Port Prepares To Open Major Expansion
A large marine civil engineering project in the Netherlands is reaching completion, the leaders of the Terneuzen New Lock (Nieuwe Sluis) project have said.
The new lock, at the North Sea Port, which is in the south of the Netherlands about 40 miles to the west of the Port of Antwerp, had an initial delivery date of March 2023 but was delayed a number of times, partly by the Covid outbreak.
Now it is expected to be finished by the end of this year.
Construction of the lock will entail a 427 x 55 metre inland waterway allowing Panamax seagoing vessels a draught of 14.5 metres and better access from the Western Scheldt to the Ghent-Terneuzen Canal and then on to France.
Panamax vessels are 100 metres longer and 16 metres wider than the vessels that currently pass through the lock, and need much deeper water, which will eventually be at least 15 metres at the sea canal.
“It is also useful to guarantee that the Ghent-Terneuzen Canal stays easily accessible in case the Westsluis (until now still the only lock for seagoing vessels) should fall out,” say the project leaders. “It also takes care of the increasingly busy navigation at the lock complex: both inland and seagoing navigation. This way, waiting times can be avoided as much as possible.”
Extensive works In total, 10 million cubic metres of soil was dredged by marine contractors DEME, with disposal locations along the sides of the locks.
DEME also altered the western harbour entrance of the Westvoorhaven and removed existing spits of land around the Middle Lock, which was actually built in 1010 and is to be replaced.
February Issue 2024
www.dockyard-mag.com 37
As much as possible of the soil removed in dredging will be re-used, some at Knokke in Belgium.
“Bank and bottom protection will be applied around newly constructed keys, mooring arrangements and the new lock itself, said deem. This bank and bottom protection consists primarily of rip maps, representing approximately 400,000 tonnes.”
Team also said that some contaminated sites have had to be remediated before preparation for construction went ahead.
The full scope of works for DEME are as follows:
• Design & construction of a new sea lock of 427 m x 55 m and water depth of NAP-16.44 m.
•
Installation of sea lock operating system, including preparatory works for future remote operation.
• Demolition works of the existing ‘Middle lock’, and existing surrounding buildings.
• Construction of the new operations building.
• Construction of a new service port and service building.
• Installation of guiding, standby
and service facilities for the lock operation.
• Adaptation of existing road network and site layout, including execution of two bascule bridges.
• Dry excavation works and soil remediation works.
• Demolition and reinstallation of scour & shore protection.
• Adaptation to the primary and regional flood defence systems.
• Deepening of inner harbour (from –11 to –14 m) and outer harbour (from –12 to –16.44 m).
•
Backfill of lock platforms at levels NAP +7.5 m and NAP +9.5 m.
• Dredging works. • Lock maintenance for two years post completion.
Dutch consultancy firm Svašek Hydraulics was hired to design the lock gates, which meant modelling water level variations depending on ship passage, which creates different forces on the gates.
The North Sea Port is rated by its operators as 10th in Europe in terms of goods volume; seventh in the Hamburg-Le Havre region and third for ‘added value’ at €12.6 billion. It actually extends across both the Netherlands and Belgium.
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