The Port of Hamilton is divided between the west and
east harbours. Piers 8 to 15 house a large fuel depot and an
agri-food cluster on Pier 10, among other facilities in the
west harbour. Piers 22 to 29 in the east harbour have multiple
agri-food terminals. The port has a grain storage capacity of
100,000 tons, 125 liquid bulk tanks with a capacity of 200,000
tons, 2.5 million square feet of warehouse space, 15 wharves
and 8.4 kilometres of St. Lawrence
Seaway maximum depth dock walls.
The port handles over 12 million
tons of cargo and upwards of 700 vessels
each year. It is ranked as the busiest
of all Canadian Great Lakes ports. With
so much traffic in and out of the port,
it is imperative that its facilities are
in good condition. The port authority
reinvests more than $10 million
each year in building and maintaining
infrastructure at the Port of Hamilton.
These investments ensure that the port
is able to meet its mandate of providing
efficient transportation and facilitate
trade for Ontario industries.
In April 2017, the HPA retained GHD
Engineering Services (GHD) of Quebec
to conduct a conditional assessment of
Pier 12 West. This section of the pier was
originally constructed in 1948, using
deep arch type sheet piling that was
16 metres long. GHD found the wharf
was in very poor condition and beginning
to fail. The decision was made to
reconstruct the entire west half of the
pier in three phases. At this time, GHD also provided HPA
with detailed design drawings and tender documents for the
reconstruction of the pier.
The maximum loads permitted at Pier 12 had been
reduced over time, which limited the use of this important
asset. Pier 12 is one of the busiest piers at the Port with over
700,000 tons of cargo handled there each year, including fertilizer,
aggregates, salt and steel. The new dock structure is
designed for an increased surcharge load capacity of 1,000
pounds per square foot, doubling the original dock’s capacity
of 500 pounds per square foot. The new structure is also
designed to allow for future maintenance dredging of the
adjacent Emerald Street Slip to ensure access by Seawaydraft
vessels.
The construction contract for Phase 1 was awarded to
Barclay Construction of Ontario and consisted of rebuilding
a 208-metre-long section of the southern half of the pier’s
west facing wall along the Emerald Street Slip. For Phase 1,
HPA pre-purchased the steel sheet piling, AZ 38-700N, from
Nucor Skyline. The purpose of the pre-order was to expedite
the delivery through the St. Lawrence Seaway before the
winter closure.
The AZ 38-700N sheet pile was manufactured in Europe,
in partnership with Nucor Skyline, and was shipped via
vessel to Sorel, Que., and later trucked to the site at the Port
of Hamilton. The AZ 38-700N sheet pile is designed with
PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
the Larssen interlock, one of the most watertight interlocks
manufactured. The design length of the sheet piles was 19.5
metres to allow for an embedment depth of 9.1 metres. The
sheet pile began to arrive in January 2018, and construction
of this part of the project was completed within the year.
Phase 2 of the contract was awarded to Dean Construction
of Ontario. This phase of the construction involved rebuilding
a 168-metre-long section of the northern half of the west
facing wall, as well as the western half of the north facing wall
of Pier 12. Nucor Skyline was asked by Dean Construction to
supply the AZ 38-700N sheet pile for this phase of construction.
The sheet pile was also shipped from Europe in the same
manner as Phase 1. The sheet pile began to arrive in January
2019, and the sheet pile installation was completed within
the year.
The next and last phase of the reconstruction of Pier 12,
Phase 3, was also awarded to Dean Construction. This phase
began with sheet pile delivery at the end of 2019, and construction
was completed in May. In Phase 3, 162 metres of
steel sheet pile were driven into place to complete the new
reinforcement of Pier 12. Overall, there was a total of 330
metres of new steel sheet pile, walers, anchor piles, tie rods
and concrete cope wall between the two phases. Nucor
Skyline supplied 131 pairs of 19.8-metre-long AZ 38-700N
sheet piles, as well as 131 #20 Grade 80 tie rods for the last
two phases of the project.
“Shipments for Phase 3 of the project had to be received
prior to the end of the St. Lawrence Seaway’s shipping season.
When the Burlington Lift Bridge is lowered for the winter,
no marine traffic can get into or out of Hamilton Harbour.
Starting Phase 3 on schedule meant having the sheet piling
delivered in late 2019 and stored at an adjacent dock. Nucor
Skyline facilitated the required offloading, storage and
PHOTO: HOPA PORTS
A new AZ 38-700N sheet pile wall for Pier 12 will give the Port of Hamilton in increased
load capacity
PILING CANADA 15