Europakai Hamburg new building berth 5

The new building of the 5th berth of the Europakai includes the construction of a 378 m long quay wall and the extension of the existing wing wall of the 4th berth (LP 4) of 58 m length. In addition, the area enclosed by the new quay wall will be filled in to create new parking spaces. A consortium consisting of the companies Depenbrock, Hochtief Construction AG and Heinrich Hirdes GmbH was awarded the contract for this work by the Hamburg Port Authority. Construction work began in July 2008
and are expected to be completed in February 2010.

2. construction
The construction of the new quay wall follows the tried and tested principle of the built-over embankment in Hamburg. The core element is a 10:1 inclined mixed steel sheet pile wall with a system spacing of 2.41m, which is anchored with driven inclined piles. This absorbs a total terrain jump of 24.40 m. To secure the quay construction, friction piles are arranged in front of the mixed sheet pile wall, which also form the foundation of the quay head. The water- and land-side rails with a track width of 18.00 m provided for the container gantry cranes are integrated into the 21.40 m wide reinforced concrete superstructure.

3. building ground
Before the pile-driving work begins, debris and boulders that are to be expected in the transition layer between the sands and the mica silt below are cleared. For this purpose, large pipes with a diameter of 1.80 m are inserted at a distance of 1.40 m to the top of the mica silt, any obstacles are removed and backfilled with sand before extraction. In order to facilitate the installation, additional Ø60 cm loosening holes are drilled between the bearing piles up to the planned lower edge of the filling piles of NN-24.80m.

4. production
The inclined bearing and filling piles are installed from a lifting platform. In the next step, the inclined piles are driven in and connected to the supporting piles in a steel construction manner. The site can then be filled in for the construction of the in-situ concrete driven piles and the superstructure. After completion of the superstructure, every second filling pile is opened up to NN-2.50m and the slope below is profiled with a gradient of 1:4.