1681 metres without a single jointback to The Construction Project
The reinforced concrete slab (pier slab) with the integrated wave absorber was produced on the infilled sand area using cast-in-place concrete. The pier slab is 80 centimetres thick and 20 metres wide, and is produced in stages of approx. 50 metres.
The back walls of the wave absorber are produced in the same lengths. After the shuttering had been installed for the back wall, the intermediate piles of the sheet piling above the pier slab could be removed. Formwork panels were inserted in the spaces as shuttering for the wave absorber ceiling. After the 80-centimetre thick ceiling had been concreted, the quay structure - which also forms the line of the dyke - affords the necessary protection against floods (height: 7.50 metres above mean sea level).
The pier slab with the wave absorber and crane runway were produced as a monolithic structure over the entire length of approx. 1.7 kilometres. This is possible thanks to a special low-heat concrete mix formula, intensive curing and reinforcement which ensures even distribution of cracks. This monolithic construction principle has already proved successful in previous terminal construction projects in Bremerhaven.
The corrosion of bare steel parts in the brackish water area at the mouth of the Weser posed a permanent problem. In the tidal area, pitting can amount to up to one millimetre per annum. All steel parts beside the water had to be given passive and active corrosion protection. Passive corrosion protection takes the form of four coats of polyurethane-based anticorrosive paint, which is applied from the top of the quay down to the bottom of the mooring basin. There was also a cathodic protection system, powered by an external current source.
The new quay was equipped with all the usual features, such as double bollards, each designed to withstand 200 tonnes of tension. The fendering consists of reinforced concrete fender slabs, suspended from steel piles in front of the quay. The 3.40-metres long foam-filled floating fenders are two metres in diameter.
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