Sterk provided a large combined wall construction to serve as a quay wall in the port of Zeebrugge. More than 200 tubular piles measuring approx. 30 metres and interlocking sections of approx. 20 metres had to be driven into the ground. This resulted a combi wall of more than 600 metres.

Work was carried out as part of the extension of the Hanze Terminal, one of Europe’s most important hubs for the import and export of vehicles.

Sterk is not new to building combi walls, but works on this scale are an exception. Not only did the job involve the construction of 220 tubular piles measuring up to 30 m long and 1.3 m in diameter, but also the 20 m long interlocking sections. The combi wall had to be anchored, and so we installed anchor plates attached to the combi wall by means of anchor rods as well. In this way, the entire construction became even more robust.

The new sea lock being constructed in IJmuiden is an extraordinary project. Rijkswaterstaat, the national agency responsible for public works and water management in the Netherlands, awarded the contract for its construction to the OpenIJ consortium. With a length of 500 metres and a width of 70 metres, it will be the largest sea lock in the world.

In early 2017, Sterk installed sheet piling for a temporary landing wharf, but the real work only started this autumn! For a temporary flood barrier we had to install piles of no less than 27 metres in length. To make it even more challenging, these piles had to be put in place with our Silent Piler using the ‘press-in’ technique – and all this at 7 metres above sea level. This meant that, depending on the tide, the press-in machine would be suspended at between 6 and 8 metres above the water…