Open ports for container vessels: An exploratory study into the possibilities for offshore and exposed container ports

Open ports for container vessels: An exploratory study into the possibilities for offshore and exposed container ports

Bakermans, B.A.

Vellinga, T. (mentor)
Wijdeven, B. (mentor)
Van den Bos, W. (mentor)
Van der Hout, A.J. (mentor)

Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Hydraulic Engineering

2014-06-18

Traditionally, ports are located in areas protected by natural shelter. Shelter is needed for the safe mooring of vessels and for the efficient handling of containers and other cargo. Disadvantage of the areas which provide natural shelter is their limiting depth. Due to the increasingly bigger vessels, dredging in ports became inevitable. Besides that, ports with large breakwaters were constructed in the coastal zone. Vessel dimensions are still growing and problems, with for example the limiting depth of a port, become bigger. This study proposes another way of thinking: bring the port to a large natural water depth instead of bringing a large water depth to the port with dredging. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the open container port concept. An open port is defined as an offshore and environmentally exposed port. The focus of this present study is on ports for container vessels. This is because container terminals involve the most stringent criteria on environmental conditions. Besides that, open ports for other types of cargo are already more common. The open container port concept was evaluated for its economical, technical and financial feasibility. The open container port concept appeared to be a nice solution for large future container port projects. The value of the coastal zone becomes increasingly higher. An offshore located port is inevitable when the coastal zone is fully used for industrial and recreational purposes. Besides that, an open port minimizes the impact on the morphological environment. More exposed berths may be feasible. This is because larger container vessels respond less to wave conditions. Moreover, recent developments in mooring systems and to a lesser extent in container cranes contribute to the idea that container handling at exposed berths is possible. To evaluate the value of the open container port concept, case studies for the region of Singapore and for the region of west Africa are performed. The main reason for an open port in the region of Singapore is the high value of the coastal zone. The coast of Singapore is fully used for industrial and recreational purposes. An open container port based on a reclaimed island was purposed for the region of Singapore. From a technical analysis, it appeared that no shelter was needed at the berth. However, it could not be guaranteed that the moored motions of smaller vessels and feeders would not exceed the prescribed limits. An economic analysis showed that a new container terminal which is only able to welcome large vessels is feasible for the location of Singapore. An open port at the coast of west Africa was proposed to deal with the dynamic morphology of this region. Therefore, high costs for the dredging of the approach channel and the port basin were avoided and erosion of the coastal zone was minimized. Extra shelter was needed for the proposed port of west Africa. The shelter was provided with a berth located in the lee of the reclaimed port and a small breakwater. Besides that, it was found that the offshore location of the proposed port is beneficial to avoid high critical infragravity waves. For the case of west Africa a financial analysis was done. Although high construction costs were found for some parts of the proposed open container port, the concept seemed financially feasible. It was concluded that the open container port concept can be applied for a lot of situations and regions. This study illustrates that the open container port can be an attractive alternative, which should be considered in the planning phase of future port projects.

sustainable ports
container ports
alternative wave sheltering
port layout design
offshore
environmentally exposed
feasibility
Singapore
west Africa

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3dbf3a0a-b446-4bf0-b722-4b526aeb09a2

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2014 Bakermans, B.A.