DEME AND DAELIM INDUSTRIAL LAUNCH MAJOR WORKS AT TUAS SINGAPORE
Dredging International a subsidiary of Belgium’s DEME Group and the South Korean company Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd. have started construction work on Singapore’s new container port at Tuas. The kick-off ceremony for the phase one of Singapore’s mega-port terminal was held at the end of April with Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan starting the construction by launching the first caisson at the site.
In February 2015 the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) signed a SGD$2.42 billion (US$1.79 billion) agreement with Dredging International Asia Pacific-Daelim Joint Venture (DDJV) for the Phase One development. According to Daelim the two companies in the joint venture will perform the first phase of the construction project that includes dredging land reclamation and wharf construction. More specifically the scope of the Tuas Terminal Phase One project includes construction of the new port terminal with 20 deepwater berths the erection of an 8.6-kilometer (5.4-mile) quay wall and its foundation the dredging of the Temasek fairway and Tuas basin as well as constructing the wharf structure and the reclamation of 294 hectares (726 acres) of new land.
To achieve this more than 80 million cubic meters (104 million cubic yards) of reclamation fill will be used dredged materials from the seabed excavated materials from other land-based projects and sea sand. By using soil improvement techniques dredged sediment from the deepening of basins and excavated earth from other land construction projects can be reused as reclamation fill materials for the Tuas project.
Laid with a foundation of 222 caissons each weighing about 15000 tons and measuring 28 meters (almost 92 feet) tall the quay wall will be fabricated at a temporary yard on-site and transported using a newly constructed 20000-ton floating dock vessel. One of DEME’s most pow-erful rock cutter suction dredges and a trailer suction dredge will also be deployed for the dredging works.
The Tuas Terminal is the centerpiece of Singapore’s “Next Generation Port Vision” to ensure that Singapore remains relevant in the future as a global hub port. The mega-terminal will be developed in four phases over 30 years with the first phase scheduled to be delivered in six years by December 2020. When completed the new terminal will be able to handle about 20 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) per year.
