Planning ahead pays off
Barcelona's El Prat was designed to cater for Maersk's Class E ships
Cranes with very long outreaches are now being put in position at major ports around the world. But is existing port infrastructure sufficient to be able to accommodate them?
The planning of this new infrastructure took two parameters into account. Firstly, the physical reality of the bay area and, specifically, areas selected for the new development, with water depths between -17m and -20m alongside the quays.
Secondly, the trend of growth in size of both vessels and of container handling equipment.
These two design constraints prompted the port authority to develop the quays with deep structures as part of a long-term vision taking into account the need to accommodate future generations of ships.
The quays and the rear support guide beams for the crane legs, for example, can withstand higher levels of activity than could currently be transmitted by existing designs of equipment that have an outreach over 23 rows of ship stowed containers.
“The demands of the container industry has evolved significantly in recent years, especially in the technical field. At Algeciras, we now have the next generation of equipment for loading, unloading and handling containers within our port installations,” says a port authority spokesperson.
At the Port of Barcelona, the new El Prat harbour was also designed specifically with Maersk Class E vessels in mind. Indeed, the width of these ships effectively determined the geometry of the basin as a whole and the characteristics of the cranes, particularly in respect to any force they would exert on the quayside.
“At present, Maersk class E vessels are the largest afloat, having 22 rows of stowed containers. However, when the design of El Prat was put together, these still hadn't entered service, but we knew that the design of the harbour had to reflect these,” says a port spokesperson.
The new Barcelona container terminal is also unusual in that, being so close to the local airport, height restrictions also exist. In effect, low profile cranes will be needed, which has meant ordering a bespoke design, whose technical feasibility had to checked with manufacturers to ensure they will still be able to span 22 rows of boxes. These should be operational in 2012.
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