MERCURIUSHAVEN AMSTERDAM

The work for Phase 1 has been completed and delivered. Three anchor piles were removed, and seven fender piles were installed, with lengths of up to 34 meters and a weight of 45 tons. Floating fenderworks, approximately 38 meters long and weighing around 82 tons, were placed between the fender piles. The transshipment location was completed with four bollards, each having a diameter of 2300 mm, a length of 38 meters, and a weight of 72 tons.

“What made this work particularly challenging was the heavy piling work combined with tolerance requirements. The new fender piles had to be installed about one and a half meters below the waterline. Determining the exact position becomes very difficult because the surveyor can no longer ‘see’ the pile and therefore cannot measure it. For this, we fabricated a special structure that was placed over the pipe pile. This frame protruded above the water and had a mirror that the surveyor could use for measurements. This worked well because all the floating fenderworks fit in between,” explained project manager Edwin Sebregts.

All the piles were equipped with pile caps. Since the piles were installed below the waterline, the pile caps had to be welded underwater. To carry out this task safely, De Klerk innovated its existing welding tanks.

“Welding the tanks underwater used to be done by divers, which can be a potentially unsafe situation. To prevent this, we added provisions to the piles and made the welding tanks hinged, allowing them to be installed without divers,” explained Edwin.

To have the transshipment location back in operation as quickly as possible, the Port Authority included in the project requirements that they wanted to keep the on-site duration as short as possible. In their EMVI commitments, De Klerk had therefore stated that they would complete the work in six weeks instead of nine.

“That’s what we achieved; we completed the project on time. It’s only because lead times can sometimes be extended in the current market, otherwise, we could have delivered a week earlier,” said Edwin.