Our member company GDG applies its specialist skills to re-rating existing ports infrastructure to make it more useable for the industry.

In 2022 we completed a site investigation management and assessment for an offshore staging and marshalling terminal within a major European port. The facility had been operated for several years as an offshore staging facility until 2018.

But with offshore wind components growing exponentially for years the industry now requires greater load capacity at staging ports than in the past. The client needed to assess the up-to-date bearing capacity of the port hinterland area and to gauge the impact of the loading of the site. The site was based on reclaimed land above natural soils with high compressibility so the client wanted to analyse the degree of settlement to date, the anticipated future settlement and the current bearing capacity.

To capture the current geotechnical parameters, we specified, procured and managed a CPTu campaign across the site. The results of the investigations were utilised within Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software, Plaxis 2D, to provide an understanding of the anticipated settlement and bearing capacity. The results were compared against historic geotechnical data of the site to understand the improvement in shear strength and reduction in compressibility since the site had been loaded.

The updated characteristics were used to inform future tenants of the site of the maximum loading characteristics. Any increase in bearing capacity would reflect an improvement upon the initial design characteristics of the terminal, representing high value to the client as the site’s greater functionality provides capability for larger offshore wind loads.

GDG provided a detailed geotechnical report outlining the CPT campaign, geotechnical interpretation and outlined the key outcomes and recommendations including the updated bearing capacity for the site and the anticipated future settlement on loading.