DOKA supplied the specialist formwork and technical support to help facilitate the major expansion of South Harbour in Aberdeen, described as the largest marine infrastructure project in Trust port history.
The company worked with contractor Beattie FRC on the harbour’s North Breakwater Crown Wall and surrounding main quay works.
The overall aim of the development at the harbour in Nigg Bay was to expand and diversify its use. The increased quayside space allows for more vessels to dock and broaden trade opportunities around the North Sea.
Doka explained the 620m crown wall’s concrete construction was the result of detailed consultation between Doka and Beattie FRC. The contractor specified a two-pour solution in height involving 10m lengths boxes. With inclement weather a potential hinderance, the need for formwork that led to the wall’s construction within the client’s strict deadline was of the utmost importance.
The Framax Xlife & Eurex 60 550 plumbing struts, MF240 platforms, and WS10 platforms from Doka were said to be key to the ‘safe’ and ‘timely’ completion of the crown wall pours, which varied from 3m to 5.5m in height. Doka revealed the system’s rapid-forming capability was enabled by its optimised panel sizes which worked ‘perfectly’ for the new desired pour heights.
Furthermore, its forming times are kept to a minimum by widely-spaced form-ties of up to 1.35m apart. With the Framax Xlife unit, Doka added that ‘accuracy is not compromised for speed’, with all connectors and accessories fitted ‘seamlessly’ by the site team.
On the crown wall quayside, the Doka MF240 climbing formwork optimised on-site works as these were all assembled offsite by Doka in Sheffield. This meant that when they arrived at site, they were almost immediately placed on the wall. The fully edge-protected, 2.40m-wide working platform enabled engineers controlled access to the crown wall during its construction, as well as being able to plumb and align the Framax.
Similarly, this process was duplicated for the WS10 platforms for the North Sea side of the wall. Here, the top pour contained a cope that had to be formed and supported. This helped inform the WS10 platforms’ design.
The cope’s load was transferred from the T7 spindles back to the platform and cast in wall anchors.
The South Harbour’s expansion has achieved a number of outcomes. These include increasing the harbour’s water depth to 15m; enabled the berthing of 300m vessels; expanding laydown area to 125,000m2, and widening channel access to 165m. The harbour has opened to vessels, a number of which are docking at Nigg Bay for the first time thanks to the additional space the expansion has allowed.
