The sand: a status report
All in all, some 240 million m³ of sand will be required for the construction of the first phase of Maasvlakte 2. The lion’s share of this sand, some 200 million m³, will be extracted from offshore sand pits in the North Sea. Another share of the sand will become available when the port basins are deepened, the Yangtzehaven is cut through and specific projects are realised in the existing port area.
The past week
In week 16 385,000 m3 was sprayed on. As a result the counter currently reads 212.5 million m³ of sand. Of this volume, some 200 million m³ comes from sand extraction areas in the North Sea. Approximately 8 million m³ comes from the Yangtzehaven and some 4.5 million m³ of sand has become available thanks to work on the LNG Terminal.
Clay
To top off the top and inside of the stony dune, as part of the hard seawall in the northwest, clay is required. The clay is applied in several layers. In total 137,888 tonnes was brought in up till now.
The rock: a status report
Since January 2010 till the end of August 2011, a bulk carrier has been unloading 90,000 tonnes of rock every two weeks at the building site in the Yangtzehaven. The rock comes from Bremanger, a district some 200 km north of the Norwegian city of Bergen. This material will soon be protecting Maasvlakte 2 from the sea.
Total volume of rock shipped in:
Over 5,500,387 tonnes
Total volume of rock incorporated in the hard seawall:
> Wet: over 2,583,485 tonnes
> Dry: over 3,800,543 tonnes
Blocks taken from the block dam of the existing Maasvlakte:
19,597 blocks
Blocks build in new block dam:
19,558 blocks
The quarrystone rocks will be used to construct the hard seawall, which will be 3,5 km long. The seawall will consist of a stony dune and a block dam. The stony dune will incorporate the Norwegian quarrystone. For the block dam, which will lie in the water in front of the stony dune, the contractors recycled the large blocks of the current Maasvlakte seawall.
A special docking area was constructed for the heavy bulk carrier, which passed by Maasvlakte every two weeks over a period of two years. A conveyor belt transported the quarrystone to the shore. Here, the rock was distributed across the site via a swivelling transporter belt. This unloading process alone allready took 36 hours. Dumpers, i.e. 'tipper trucks', subsequently transported the quarrystone to a sifting installation. After two weeks, the whole process would started all over again.
Monday 30 January Rotterdam alderman Jeannette Baljeu (Port, Transport and Regional Economics) placed the last block in the dam of the hard seawall. The dam consists of 19,558 blocks, each weighing more than 40,000 pounds. Consortium PUMA especially developed the Blockbuster for this heavy task. Since April 2011 this special crane build in the concrete cubes (2.5 x 2.5 x 2.5 m) with a precision of 15 centimeter, day and night. In conclusion the Blockbuster placed heavy water stone till the end of February. PUMA expects to hand over the entire hard seawall to Port of Rotterdam this spring.
Follow the construction from the air
