Colombo Port Expansion Project

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Key project for the development of the harbor industry in Sri LankaSri Lanka has long served as a port of call and a gateway to trade between the east and the west as the island country geographically connects the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. Since the Port of Colombo plays a role of a port of transshipment which connects sea routes, such as Asia – Southwest Asia – Middle East – Europe, and Southwest Asia – Southeast Asia – the U.S., the Sri Lankan government came up with an ambitious plan to extend the port in an aim to develop it into a hub port in the Southwest Asia region and the Indian Ocean.The Port of Colombo project was designed to increase the port’s container handling capacity on an annual average by 7.5 million TEU from 4.5 million TEU to 12 million TEU. The project included the construction of a breakwater using five million cubic meters of stone, the dredging for an access road to the new port, the reclamation of about 20-million-cubic meter land, the relocation of a 10-kilometer undersea oil pipeline, and the construction of various facilities. Introduction of cutting-edge technologies for greater precisionThe Core-LocTM concrete armour units (20.4 tons/EA) were used for the most outer boundary of the breakwater to ensure that it can withstand waves for about 1,000 years. The existing harbors had concrete armour blocks piled up as a double layer so as to use their loads to reduce the power of waves, while this project devised up a single-layer design in which self-weight and intertwining of concrete armour blocks could function to break waves. To check appropriate interlocking of the blocks, divers had to inspect and measure them on a constant basis. As part of efforts to solve such difficulties, PosiblocTM was introduced to improve precision in the placement of the concrete armour blocks. The use of PosiblocTM can drastically increase work efficiency by enabling workers to install armour units regardless of time and weather conditions without the help of divers as the visually aided system displays both the installed blocks and those under construction on a computer screen in three dimensions.Unwavering spirit in face of the wild seaHeavy seas in the Indian Ocean were the most challenging for workers at the construction site. As the construction was conducted directly against waves, the breakwater was often washed away by raging seas. Moreover, the workers suffered from a lack of working days because they could not work during five months between May and September due to heaving seas. They had to deal with a series of difficulties as unexpected gusts of wind and tsunamis destroyed seven barges, and a dredging vessel was shipwrecked.To complete the construction on time, Hyundai E&C was determined to switch marine construction into one on land: The builder changed the design of the riprap cross section after consultations with the technology company and the client to enable the construction of the breakwater on land even during a monsoon period. On top of this, the builder could decrease stone consumption by using value engineering to optimize the breakwater cross section, and further successfully completed the project through the around-the-clock construction of the concrete armour units based on a state-of-the-art program.

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