The quay construction with concrete caisson in Belde container port in Turkey

Abstract

Belde port area is situated on the northeastern coast of the Marmara Sea, approximately 45 km east of Istanbul-Turkey. Belde port site is near to the industrial area around the Gebze in the district of Dilovasi, which is a town of Izmit. The Marmara Sea is almost completely enclosed, opening only to the Black Sea through the Bosphorus and to the Agean Sea through the Dardanelles. The Belde port overall of the site is approximately 53 hectares (ha) including land reclaimed from the sea. There are a number of existing relatively small jetties along the coastline adjacent to Belde. All of these jetties are unprotected and berthing for relatively small vessels. Design waves at Belde have been calculated from the wind record since there is no direct record of the wave climate at the port area. The calculation, which is the method given in the United States Corps of the Engineers, Shore Protection Manual, uses the open sea fetch and the hourly wind speed to predict the wave height and period. The quay structure will be constructed with concrete caisson in Belde container port. Casting and transporting of concrete caisson to the site and strength and bearing capacity of foundation soil have been discussed. In this paper, transverse stability, factor of safety for sliding and overturning, pressure under the foundation has been investigated. Briefly, the overall stability of the caissons has been studied as a part of the global slope stability analysis.