Abstract
The Israel ports development plan includes the development of two focal points of sea trade along the Mediterranean Sea: at the city of Ashdod, located about 40 km southern of Tel-Aviv and at the city of Haifa, located about 90 km northern of Tel-Aviv (Figure 1).
Ashdod city location in Israel
The development plan was based on the forecast of the cargos demand growth (import/export) and the raise of the global trade. One of the plan purposes was to enable huge vessels enter the Israeli ports. A logistic areas, transportation roads and railways were also taken into consideration.
Hadarom Port, the new development stage is adjacent to the existing port of Ashdod (Figure 2). The first stage of Ashdod Port was designed for Panamax vessels with entrance channel of 14 m depth and was operated on 1965. The second stage, Hayovel Port, was designed for Post-Panamax vessels with entrance channel of 17.5 m depth and was operated on 2005. The start order of the new stage project was on September 2014 and it will be operational on October 2021. Hadarom Port is designed for EEE vessels (18,000 TEU) with entrance channel of 21 m depth.
Hadarom Port project layout
During the design of Hadarom Port project several alternatives were considered for the different structures according to construction stages.
The lack of existing Staging Harbour as well as the need for stone columns installation under the Main Breakwater foundation, significantly prolonged the extension of the Main Breakwater construction duration.
The container marginal Quay 28 has a major importance as a temporary protection to reclamation works behind it, in an early stage and during the Main Breakwater construction.
In this paper, we focused on the design alternatives for Quay 28 and its construction challenges in open sea.
