HES HARTEL TANK TERMINAL, ROTTERDAM

In Rotterdam harbour a new tank terminal is being constructed for HES International B.V. There are 52 storage tanks being provided on the 27 hectare site of the new terminal, thus creating a storage capacity for oil products of about 1.3 million cubic metres.

The new tank terminal includes a new deep-sea quay 1200 metres long, an inland shipping quay 1100 metres long, and a mooring jetty 350 metres long. The construction of the deep-sea quay is designed to handle the largest sea tankers.

The construction of the HES Hartel Tank Terminal will be carried out by Van Hattum & Blankevoort, Boskalis, and TBI contractor Mobilis. GEO2 Engineering B.V. has been commissioned to work out the geotechnical design for various temporary works.

Within this project, the geotechnical works consist of free-standing sheet pile walls for the building excavations, which will be placed to create a working surface area. This working area will be used for the placement of MV piling rigs, which will provide the anchoring of the quay construction.

Geotechnical ‘specials’ within the scope of GEO2 Engineering B.V. are:

• the design of parts of the building excavation;
• the construction of the connection to the existing Brammen Quay within a constricted space and the stability of heavy material.
• the design calculations for the free-standing sheet pile walls for the building excavations have been carried out using DSheet Piling and Plaxis 2D. The Plaxis 2D analysis provides insight into the deformation behaviour of the sheet pile walls and the associated massive foundations. In addition, various alternatives have been considered, together with their influence on the (later) recovery of the sheet pile walls after completion of the construction work.

For more information, please see the project web-site.