Krupp GfT Gesellschaft für Anlagen-, Bau- und Gleistechnik has supplied sheet piling walls and sheet piles with a total weight of over 16,000 tonnes for the first section of the new Altenwerder container terminal being built in the port of Hamburg. The first section of the container terminal is 960 meters long. With a useful length of 800 meters, the section will provide berths for two 350 meter long container vessels and 100 meters of space for feeder units. The piling elements will be used to build the shore section of the quay wall.

The quay wall construction essentially comprises a combined sheet piling wall made of 32.6 meter long double piles onto each of which 27.5 meter long intermediate piles are directly welded. Each of these assemblies weighs around 22 tonnes. They will be inserted in previously excavated one meter wide channels using a hoisting machine with a lifting capacity of 100 tonnes. The channels are over 20 meters deep and will be stabilized with a mixture of bentonite and water. This design was chosen because the sheet piles cannot be directly driven in at this point on account of the poor soil quality.

So-called fender piles will be installed in front of the sheet piling wall to ensure that the large container vessels do not come too close with the risk of the soil in which the piles are anchored being flushed out by the ship's propellers. The fender piles are 1,220 millimeters in diameter and have a wall thickness of 16 millimeters. They are inserted with a Müller vibratory hammer supplied by Krupp GfT.

Work on the construction of the first section of the Altenwerder container terminal is scheduled for completion in December this year. The quay wall will then rise some 7.50 meters above the surface of the Elbe river. With a water depth of 16.70 meters, the overall height of the quay wall will be around 24 meters, making it the tallest in the port of Hamburg. The order for the second section of the altogether 1,400 meter long container terminal will be awarded immediately after completion of the first section. The overall project is due for completion in 2003.