New drainage system at London Gateway Port, Berth 7 in UK
Great success story
The London Gateway Port project is a great success story. The one channel run and the moulded connection points helped to reduce installation time and contributed to the ease of the project. RECYFIX HICAP 100 and 300 were supplied to drain the £1.5 billion facility. In addition, FASERFIX KS 100 and 150 were installed in nearby access roads.
The London Gateway Port provides 2,700 metres of quay, seven deep-water berths with depth alongside of 17 metres, 24 giant quay cranes and an annual capacity of 3.5 million TEU (Twenty foot Equivalent Units). The £1.5 billion facility, on the north bank of the Thames estuary, is only 20 miles (32km) from London at Stanford le Hope, Essex which also includes what is claimed to be Europe’s largest Logistics Park, a Rail Terminal, process area and improved road links to the A13. Much of the London Gateway Port’s container transfer and handling area is concreted, so effective surface water drainage was a major consideration to ensure efficient all-weather operation.
140 meters of RECYFIX®HICAP
HAURATON supplied a total of 140 metres of RECYFIX HICAP 100 and 300 channels to drain surface water from Berth 7, developed by Pentalver for DP Ports. The RECYFIX HICAP drainage system is able to accept a total water volume of 21,994 litres. The channels at Berth 7 were installed in just one run keeping the excavation work to a minimum. Ken Burgess, Project Engineer of HAURATON, commented, “At just over 23kg, even the RECYFIX HICAP 300 one metre unit was easily manipulated into position on site". To further reduce installation times, end-of-run caps and pipe connection sockets were also supplied with other connection points moulded into the sides and bottom of each channel. This was a major advantage for the contractor as it helped speed the completion of the project. Factory fitted with slotted ductile iron inlets, the channels comply with loading category Class F900 so they can easily take the weight of a lifting truck transporter with a fully laden container. Importantly, once installed, the complete system is highly resilient to the twisting forces imposed by the wheeled vehicles.
Additionally, 30 metres of FASERFIX KS 100 and 150 were installed in access roads. These channels were fitted with 9mm slotted ductile iron gratings and provided a loading category of Class E600. The FASERFIX KS channel component is made from Fibre-Reinforced Concrete (FRC) with galvanised steel pressings permanently moulded along their top edges, so with the gratings fitted, the unit’s exposed surfaces are highly resistant to wear.
Tim Connolly, Sales and Marketing Director of HAURATON UK, comments about the project: “We are pleased that this part of the London Gateway project has been such a success and delighted that the channel runs were installed quickly and easily. I am sure this contributed to the rapid build progress of the job”.
