A strong output despite high pressure

The Port of Duisburg is the world's largest inland port and is considered Europe's logistics hub. Strong partners are needed to carry out construction work here while the port is in operation. Duisburger Hafen AG, the client, relied on terra infrastructure to provide a safe shoring solution for the renewal of the canal infrastructure.

Well-planned, sustainable water management was the goal of a construction project on the street “Am Parallelhafen” in Duisburg, which was recently completed successfully. Duisburger Hafen AG had AMT Alex Maas Tiefbauunternehmung GmbH & Co. KG, Moers, install a sedimentation pipeline on a one-kilometer section. Its purpose is to remove coarse and fine particles from the contaminated rainwater that accumulates on the site so that it can flow into the harbor basin and from there into the Rhine in a harmless state.

Special attention was paid to the area around the harbor crane at the beginning of the civil engineering work. Since the subsoil here was exposed to extremely high pressure loads due to the operation of a gantry crane and an access road for heavy goods vehicles running on the other side of the excavation pit, the excavation pit had to be made particularly stable. During the entire construction work, both the crane runway and the heavy goods vehicles delivering materials had to be able to continue operating without disruption. This was made possible by the shoring solutions provided by terra infrastructure GmbH. The stepped E+S Linear shoring system was used in the 36-meter-long, five-meter-wide, and 4.60-meter-deep excavation pit. The U-carriages used instead of the usual frame carriages ensured a large pipe clearance height despite the high pressure loads. “This solution was tailor-made for the conditions on the site. The sedimentation pipes we installed had a length of four and six meters and had a nominal diameter of DN 800. Thanks to the U-carriages, threading them in was no problem,” emphasizes site manager M. Sc. Lars Büteröwe from AMT Alex Maas Tiefbauunternehmung. Both before and after the work, evidence was secured on the foundations of the crane runway – “without the slightest impairment,” as Büteröwe was able to confirm.

With E+S Linear shoring, rigid carriages keep the beams and thus the shoring panels at a distance. Everything runs linearly—always at the same distance from the opposite side. "In addition, another significant advantage of the system results from the special design of the beam. It allows the shoring panels to be swung in from the side. Together with the U-carriages, the site in Duisburg was completed effectively, quickly, and economically despite the special conditions. We are proud that our innovative solutions are also indirectly contributing to improving water quality," emphasizes Melissa Otten from the Trench Shoring sales team for the western region at terra infrastructure.

The stepped E+S Linear shoring with U-carriages was only used at the particularly sensitive 4.60-meter-deep section in the area of the gantry crane. Along the rest of the route, the excavation pit was only 2.20 meters deep, which is why shoring boxes were sufficient to secure the excavation pit. The 36-meter-long section along the crane runway was not shored in one piece, but divided into three sections, with the sedimentation pipes being gradually threaded in, laid on a sand bed, and professionally compacted as construction progressed. The pipes are part of a rainwater treatment system for contaminated precipitation runoff, such as from traffic areas. The pipes separate solids and light liquids (oil) carried along with the rainwater and reliably retain them even in the event of accidents in dry weather.

The work was completed in February 2025. Since then, rainwater from the 1.6-hectare connected area in Am Parallelhafen street has been flowing into the harbor basin in a harmless condition despite the heavily trafficked areas.