Innovative: mv rack with free-hanging broker

The port of Antwerp is growing steadily. To allow larger ships to dock at the new tank terminal in the future, the existing quay wall in Kanaaldok B2 is being transformed into a deep-sea quay. Jan De Nul Group invested in the engineering to install the anchoring piles (mv piles) of the new combi wall. Meet the mv rack with 60-meter long free-hanging broker, unique in the Benelux.

47 slices
The new quay wall is 800 meters long and will be built in phases in front of the existing quay wall. It is a combi wall construction, consisting of 280 tubular piles with a diameter of 2 meters and the same number of sheet piles. The combi wall will be anchored with a total of 240 mv piles that will be installed over the tubular piles. The whole is finished with a concrete cesp. "We divided the new quay wall into 47 sections, each 24 meters long, consisting of six tubular piles and 360 m³ concrete," said Jan Landuyt of Soetaert-Soiltech, 100% part of Jan De Nul Group. "The whole project is managed and executed within the group."

Instead of a fixed frame, we use a free-hanging broker.

600-ton cable crane
Piling combi walls is not foreign to Jan De Nul Group. Landuyt: "We have a lot of expertise in installing combi walls in the Netherlands and Belgium, and even in Poland. Installing MV piles, on the other hand, was new to the group. Only a few parties in the Benelux have mastered the technique. In the public tender for this project, this technique was prescribed and, after being awarded, we invested in suitable equipment. The big difference of our system is in the equipment. Instead of a fixed frame, we use a free-hanging broker from Liebherr hoisted by a 600-ton cable crane. This way we don't have to lay tracks to move the mv rig. This is always a very time-consuming task." 

Jan De Nul Group invested in the engineering to install the anchor piles (mv piles) of the new combi wall.

Piling over the head
The cable crane holds both the broker and the mv pole at the correct angle (45 degrees) and position with the help of tether cables. Landuyt describes the working method: "We lower the broker to the ground and so we can slide in the profile fairly quickly. These are hefty profiles of type HEM600 in lengths of 43 meters and weighing 12.5 tons each. The profile, hammer and leader together weigh about 72 tons. We then hoist the whole thing up above the pipe pile. We clamp the self-engineered base onto the tubular pile in such a way that we can freely manipulate and align the broker. It allows us to apply the profiles from variable positions and even pile over the head, with the scaffold suspended above the water."

Jan De Nul Group has gotten off to a fairly successful start with the new rig. "We are driving four to five piles a day, a nice number," Landuyt believes. "When the new quay wall is fully installed, the old quay wall will be demolished and the water depth will increase from 6 to 18 meters. By the end of this year, large ocean-going vessels will then be able to dock at Canal Dock B2."