The breakwater is for the proposed expansion of San Antonio port. The Outer Port project, known as the Puerto de Gran Escala (PGE), represents a major expansion of the existing port infrastructure of San Antonio. The proposal involves staged development of the port over a 19-year time span, with an estimated overall cost of US$3.4bn.
The construction of the new breakwater to shelter the terminals involves a first section perpendicular to the coast, approximately 1.5km in length, followed by another section of about 2.4km long running parallel to the coast, for which over 1.8km虏 of land will be reclaimed.
When fully completed, San Antonio鈥檚 Outer Port will have a breakwater over 3.9 km long.
Daniel Roth, project director, San Antonio Outer Port, said: 鈥淭his is a significant infrastructure project for Chile, and we are delighted to be working with HR Wallingford whose experience of breakwaters, as well as of working in Chile will be of particular benefit to the project. The physical studies will allow us to examine phenomena that require more detailed analysis in a reduced scale physical model, and which the computer modelling is not able to represent with the same level of precision. The result of this study will enable us to confirm the suitability of the basic design, investigate at a higher level of detail and achieve optimisation of the project with the aim of perfecting our project in terms of costs, deadlines and design before construction.鈥�
The Outer Port, located due south of the current port, will specialise in transferring containers. The planned dock length for each terminal is 1.73km, allowing for the simultaneous docking of four large class E container ships, and a stacking area sufficient to operate up to 3 million TEU annually.聽 The design includes an access channel and the dredging of the turning basin and the interior harbour to ensure accessibility for the E-class container ships, even under highly unfavourable weather conditions.
Jos茅 Gallardo, PRDW senior engineer, added: 鈥淎t over 3.9km long, this will be the largest breakwater ever planned for Chile. The location of the breakwater makes the environmental conditions particularly challenging. They include a river mouth discharge and large waves, as well as a deep-water canyon in the sea bed adjacent to the port. This level of complexity makes undertaking physical modelling studies a critical part of the process.鈥�
HR Wallingford is undertaking this work in partnership with The Instituto Nacional de Hidr谩ulica (INH), with tests being conducted both in the UK and in Chile in INH鈥檚 laboratory in Pe帽aflor.
Maria di Leo, HR Wallingford coastal structures group manager, said: 鈥淭he studies we will be carrying out include 2D and 3D modelling to test breakwater stability and port operability. The 2D tests will focus on four sections of the breakwater, and will be used to optimise the design with respect to armour units, toe size and depth, crest elevation and crown wall configuration, among others. For the 3D tests the whole port and adjacent stretches of coast will be modelled, including a portion of the canyon at the port entrance. To that end, we will build the model in our biggest basin, which is 75 m long and 32 m wide. The 3D tests will look at wave agitation and ship movement, and will also look at the wave induced three-dimensional effects that can affect the breakwater stability and overtopping performance, those that can鈥檛 be addressed in 2D. We are looking forward to this new collaboration with INH which involves Knowledge Transfer as part of the project, and an opportunity to share standards.鈥�
The detailed engineering study has been awarded to the Spanish company Sener Ingenier铆a y Sistemas Chile whose key projects include the construction of the Maritime Terminal of Costa Cruceros, Port of Barcelona.
Work on the breakwater could begin by 2020, and the first stage of the first terminal could start operating by 2026 or 2027. The Outer Port would then be developed in discrete stages, to be fully completed by 2038 or 2040.
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