Hakkers successful underwater drilling test bed

The desire to innovate anchoring arose from the Port of Rotterdam Authority’s need to reinforce existing quays to accommodate larger ships with greater draughts. A precondition requires that the work will not disrupt the daily operations of one of Europe’s busiest ports. The Port of Rotterdam Authority made a test site available at Seinehaven. After three years of preparation, design and development, the machine from Hakkers Funderingstechniek was put into operation for the first time. We look back on a useful work week in which we gathered a lot of data on what works well, what needs attention and what further development is needed for a fully deployable solution. Different equipment was available to properly conduct and closely monitor the test during a visit to the site on the quayside of the Humberweg in Rotterdam. We meet Project Leader Jordy Schutte, who graduated in 2017. His studies focused on innovations for quay reinforcement and a future-proof Port of Rotterdam. He is now watching his theories being put into practice. As we speak with him, the underwater anchor drill is below the water table inserting an anchor into the sheet piling. “Both the penetration of the sheet piling and the drilling itself do not cause any vibration. We are quite satisfied with that,” he says. And in fact, looking at the surface of the water, you can’t tell that the drill is actually working. No activity is visible to the eye while an anchor steadily penetrates the soil metre by metre. Jordy continues, “The beauty of this innovation is that it is a success for the entire Hakkers Group. Our fields of Hydraulic Engineering, Foundation Engineering and Steel Construction all contribute to the various facets of the work. We use steel products from Geotech Metals. The sum of all the parts adds value to the project objective: “efficiently installed quay reinforcement without disturbing the surrounding area.” Besides using the underwater anchor drill to reinforce existing quay walls, Hakkers sees other applications for this technology in the near future. On Thursday, 7 September, a well-attended information day was organised by Hakkers at the project site. The underwater anchor drill was presented and delegations from port companies from the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as engineering firms, learnt about this unique innovation and saw the underwater anchor drill in action. We look back on a successful day.