Port of Piombino, Livorno, Italy | 2014

Building the East Quay to Enhance Industrial and Logistic Development

The port of Piombino is situated in Livorno, Tuscany, part of central Italy. Since 2012, this port is moving ahead with the realisation of the improvements foreseen in the Port Master Plan, a largescale project for industrial, logistic and port development. Foreseen to be completed in 2020, the sizable infrastructural development of the port area will include new quay walls and the necessary rail and road connections. Thereafter, up to three and a half kilometres of quaysides and around 800 000 square metres of port space will be available, in addition to those currently existing.

The Port Master Plan includes the construction of a new dock with a 350 m long and 50 m wide East Quay. The dock will be dredged to 20 m below average sea level (l.m.m.).

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en English AMCRPS_CS-022-Piombino-East-Quay_GB.pdf
Typical cross section East Quay
East Quay - Port of Piombino - Livorno
driving frame_Piombino_east quay
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The East Quay’s original tender documents specified a tube combined wall solution, where the primary elements were 38 m long steel tubular piles, Ø 2060 mm, steel grade S420 MH, with a variable thickness of 26 and 32 mm in function of the design draught.

The tendered intermediary sheet piles were 29 m long Z sections with an elastic modulus of 3 870 cm3/ double element in steel grade S430 GP.

In order to provide a more economical solution and a faster delivery, ArcelorMittal, in collaboration with CMC, proposed an alternative design using spirally welded tubes with a constant wall thickness of 26 mm (locally reinforced when needed), a higher anchoring level and a more economical intermediary sheet pile.

The design of this tube combined wall was performed according to Eurocode 3 (Part 4 and Part 5) and Eurocode 8 (seismic design). 

The minimum quay wall design life time is 100 years, without considering the additional measures that can extend the design life time up to 300 years, which are: 

  • steel stress verification performed assuming a corrosion loss for 100 years; 
  • coating over the 7 upper meters of the combined wall; 
  • cathodic protection (the anchoring system, the combined wall and the concrete reinforcement); 
  • filling of the steel tubes with concrete and jet grouting (this also helps to avoid ovalisation and increase the pile inertia).

The Piombino Port project showcases perfectly the advantages of collaborating with ArcelorMittal’s technical services. Thanks to this collaboration among designers, contractors and supplier, a more simplified and cost efficient solution has been installed. 

The different technical modifications explained resulted in an easier execution and significant savings in steel weight (the installed intermediary piles are 20% lighter than the tendered ones).