flood protection for the columbus peninsula completed
The next section of the flood protection line in Bremerhaven has been thoroughly refurbished.
1.3 kilometres of the flood protection installations on the Columbus peninsula have now been replaced by new sheet piling or concrete walls that are roughly one metre higher than the previous structures.
The main structural measures included:
- raising the existing flood walls,
- installing sheet piling as new flood walls (sheet piling was installed by vibratory pile driving to an average depth of approx. 9 metres along a length of approx. 650 m),
- dismantling the old flood walls,
- upgrading the flood protection for a private property to a public flood wall,
- refurbishing a dyke opening (mitre gate),
- dismantling a dyke opening (mitre gate),
- construction of three new openings in the dyke (1x mitre gate & 2 x sliding gates),
- application of new corrosion protection (approx. 14,500m² steel parts)
- dismantling and installing new sidings,
- construction of a new dyke defence path.
One of the key features of this project was that port and logistics operations on the Columbus peninsula continued throughout the construction work. The site management took a number of precautions to keep the impact on regular operations to a minimum.
bremenports is responsible for dyke protection in Bremerhaven on the basis of an agency agreement. Comprehensive projects to raise the dyke in the central area of Bremerhaven and alongside Fischereihafen have been completed over the last few years. “Flood protection at the ports and in Bremerhaven poses many and diverse structural and technical challenges,” explains Robert Howe, Managing Director of bremenports. “Following completion of the greater part of the dyke line, the installation of flood protection on the Columbus peninsula marks the conclusion of another major module.”
Some remaining work still has to be done at the dyke opening which serves as access to “Columbuskaje” road. This will be completed in spring, after the end of the storm surge season.
Work on a flood protection system for the Columbus peninsula began in spring 2020. The project was designed in line with the Coastal Protection Master Plan for Lower Saxony and Bremen, which meant that the target heights for flood protection on the Columbus peninsula had to be raised. These calculations are based on current data and anticipated climate change. The aforesaid plan specifies a total dyke height of 7.80 m above standard elevation zero for the Columbus peninsula. Compared with the previous total dyke height, which was mostly 6.80 m above standard elevation zero, this meant that the dyke had to be raised by approx. 1.0 metres.
