The challenge owner wants to help clients by increasing the depth and accessibility, as this will also increase its competitive position and enables additional cargo volumes (with the associated additional revenue for the client and challenge owner). However, the possibility of increasing the depth in front of existing quay walls is often limited by the structural capacity of the (quay) structures.

The majority of the quay structures in the port consist of so-called earth retaining structures, build-up of steel sheet piles / combiwalls combined with an anchor system (either horizontal anchor rods with a sheet pile anchor wall or inclined grouted anchor piles). Installing additional underwater anchors in these quay structures is considered to be an effective way to increase the strength and the stability of the structure, enabling deepening in front of the quay. The challenge owner has several quay structures that could potentially be considered for deepening in combination with underwater anchoring. The advantages of using underwater anchors compared with new build, where possible, are:

• less impact on ongoing client operations

• shorter lead time

• smaller CO2 footprint

• lower costs