Kobelco duo for port expansion

The €23m (£21.4m) expansion, which includes a new 216m-long quay structure, is comprised of 15m-long 1016mm diameter tubular piles, a sheet piled anchor wall and precast elements that will form the new quay’s face. The job will require dredging 55,000m3 of materials, and building two new breakwater structures. A reclamation area for quay storage will also be built and will double as workable quay space.

This will enable significant expansion in fish landings, on-shore processing, and general marine activity at the port, including facilitating landings by vessels up to 100m long.

The 65t-capacity Kobelco BM700 was supplied by Dungiven, Northern Ireland based Ideal Form Crane Hire. Working on a jack-up barge, the BM700 is fitted with a 42.7m jib and 23.6t of counterweight.

Duties include lifting reinforced circular piling frames onto a floating barge and pitching of 21m-long AS 500 straight web sheet piles, which form a closed cylindrical structure to retain a soil fill. A total of 108 sheet piles make up the cell cofferdam at the end of the harbour’s breakwaters, with a total of four cells to be constructed.

The BM700, which has over 20,000 hours on the clock, is working alongside Keating Construction’s own 100t capacity CKE1100G to install 44 piles of 900mm diameter, each weighing between 10t and 12t.

To drive the sheet piles into the rock, the BM700 is using an ICE 1423C vibrating piling hammer, which has a head weight of 4.5t at a radius of 17m.

Once the cell is complete the BM700 removes the inner cell frame in four sections, with each section weighing approximately 9t.

Keating Construction’s CKE1100 has been fitted with a 42.7m jib and 34.6t of counterweight for the project. Duties at the site include lifting precast concrete elements, which can weigh up to 15.5t, off-loading/loading of 20m-long, tubular and sheet piles weighing up to 11.5t, and driving of tubular piles using a 14.5t BSP CX85 piling hammer.

Other duties include servicing a pile top drill rig, drilling 4m into the rock head, and lifting concrete elements, formwork and rebar.