Mooring facility Cruiseport The Hague

There is a growing cruise market. To accommodate the growth of cruise shipping in North-West Europe, the developers Consortium ‘Cruiseport The Hague’ wants to construct an outer harbour at Scheveningen; to this day, the harbour of Scheveningen is not able to receive today’s large cruise ships. Obviously, a cruise mooring facility has to be constructed in the outer port; however, this structure has to provide more than just the mooring of cruise vessels alone. A multifunctional structure was designed. The functions, besides providing mooring to cruise ships are an underground parking garage and substructure as a foundation for the cruise terminal and office towers (a ten level building). The objective of my graduation project was to design the substitute of the mooring facility with related construction method. Construction method alternatives for the mooring facility are developed by a global feasibility study. This study, in combination with a multi-criteria analysis shows that the caisson construction method is selected for construction of the mooring facility. The caisson method is investigated in further detail to conclude whether it is possible to design and construct a very large (area of about 50,000 m2) joint free caisson structure as a mooring facility. A global design has been prepared for all the construction stages of the caisson mooring facility (from the construction to the removal of the temporary construction pit). The report describes the design for a caisson structure, able to resist the forces working on it throughout its lifecycle. The technical feasibility of the mega caisson is evaluated using a hand calculation and a finite element model, ESA PT. Based on these models, it can be concluded that the use of a very large caisson structure as mooring facility is technically feasible. Furthermore, the study shows that, when it comes to the financial feasibility, the cofferdam method leads to the lowest construction costs.Hydraulic EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience