www.sea-technology.com March 2017 / st 27
S
ingapore ranks as the world's second busiest container
port, handling 33.9 million 20-ft. equivalent unit (TEU)
containers in 2014, according to the Maritime and Port
Authority of Singapore (MPA). To put it in perspective, the
Port of Shanghai ranks as number one, with 35.2 million
TEU in 2014.
Singapore is expanding the Tuas terminal into a new
megaport that, when complete, will have 20 deepwater
births. The expansion will handle 20 million TEU per year
out of the total capacity of up to 65 million TEU for the
whole Tuas development. In total, 222 caissons will be used
during Phase One reclamation works, which is scheduled
for completion by the early 2020s.
"Tuas Terminal is a key pillar of Singapore's next-genera-
tion port and represents our con‹dence in Singapore's mari-
time future," said Andrew Tan, CEO of MPA.
Tan described the Tuas Terminal Phase One project as an
"engineering feat", as it uses the innovative prefabricated
caisson design for wharf structures, which is comparatively
faster than traditional methods such as piling.
For the port expansion project, MPA has appointed
Dredging International Asia Paci‹c (DIAP), a subsidiary of
Belgium's DEME Group, which formed a joint venture with
South Korea's Daelim, to carry out the reclamation work.
"This is a very large megaengineering project, with the
total cost of more than $2.4 billion [SGD]," said Alain Ber-
nard, CEO of DEME Group. Each caisson is 92 ft. tall and
will form a seawall to reclaim more than 1.13 sq. mi. of
Singapore's Tuas
Expands into Megaport
Building Caisson Seawall for Tuas Terminal Phase One Development
#Z,ZMF.D,JOOFZt+BO-FGFWFSt5PN3F[BOLB
(Bottom) Singapore Tuas Terminal rendering after construc-
tion. (Image Credit: DEME Group) (Right) RL-10-SSP Encoder
installed on %FMUB1SJODF.