Port Botany expansion gathers momentum

NSW Ports Minister Joe Tripodi said on October 27, 2009 that more than two hundred 20 m (seven storeys) high concrete counterfort wall units are being constructed on site before being taken by barge onto Botany Bay and lowered into place. Currently ten have been successfully placed in the water with another 206 to go.

“This new phase of our programme will see one of these counterforts placed in the Bay every day, a massive engineering feat given that each section weighs 640 tonnes,” said Minister Tripaldi.

The counterforts will form the 1.8 km of new wharf face against which ships will berth when the terminal is completed in 2011. The outer wall will consist of 199 counterfort sections with an additional 17 units used for the tug wharves. The giant concrete blocks are being constructed on site at a concrete batching plant in order to reduce the impact of trucking movements on the local community. Once completed, each unit is transported to a temporary wharf, taken by barge to its final location and lowered onto a compacted sand and gravel bed.