Our assignment
Skanska served as the general contractor for the expansion of Norra Hamnen, meaning that we assumed full responsibility for project planning, material, work and subcontractors. The client is the City of Malmö, which owns the land in Norra Hamnen, and Copenhagen Malmö Port (CMP), which is responsible for the actual harbor operations. The project commenced in March 2009 and was completed in April 2011
Project was conducted by an internal consortium comprising Skanska Road and Civil Engineering Region South, Region Stora Projekt and Region Grundläggning. Project planning, geotechnics and design were carried out by Skanska Teknik.
Construction process
The major challenge presented by the project involved creating a stable foundation because of the area’s history of being used as a dump for waste material from earlier construction projects since the 1960s. To assess the strength of the ground, we enlisted geotechnical expertise. With their help, we were able to develop a control program and use full-depth soil stabilization equipment on the area that also scanned and assessed its load-bearing capacity. The weaker points identified were subsequently reinforced.
Much of the work was carried out in water – dredging and sheet piling – meaning that we were significantly impacted by weather conditions. To minimize the risks connected with working in water, we used only highly experienced personnel for sheet piling and standard piling. A subcontractor was engaged to perform the dredging work.
Dredging work on the area where the cargo ferry terminal is now situated commenced in April 2009. The water depth at that time was four meters. But in order for the ferries to berth, the depth was increased to nine meters. The following month, we moved dredging operations slightly further into the industrial harbor where the new container port is now located. The depth here was also lowered to nine meters. Dredging work was also performed at the innermost point of the industrial harbor to accommodate a new pier for Heidelberg Cement, which relocated all of Cementa’s operations from Limhamn to Norra Hamnen. A total of 500,000 square meters of material was dredged.
The foundations of all structures are built on piles that are driven into solid limestone rock. The foundations of piers are also secured down to solid limestone rock. Most of the sheet piles were hammered into place using piling cranes working from floating work platforms.
We constructed three ferry berths for RORO traffic. RORO is an acronym for roll on – roll off and means that wheeled vehicles can be driven on and off the ferry. Between two of the ferry berths, a 250-meter-long pier was constructed. A moveable ramp was also constructed there enabling the ferries to be loaded and unloaded with trucks on two levels.
A combi-terminal was built at the end of Lappögatan. Containers and other goods can now be reloaded on to full train units. A container-handling terminal was constructed in the southern part of the area. This pier is equipped with a crane track enabling a 90-meter-high crane to load and unload container vessels.
Skanska also constructed three buildings in the area: a staff building with two floors, a gate building and a customs building. We also installed all electricity and lighting in the area.
Information letters were regularly distributed to keep residents in the area up-to-date on progress at the site, thus ensuring that they would have understanding for any disruptions that occurred.
Pre-task planning meetings comprised a key component of our efforts to avoid accidents and unwelcome surprises. Together with project management, those in charge of a task reviewed what needed to be done and received information about the risks specifically linked to that task. They subsequently determined the necessary measures in order to avoid the risks. The gains yielded by pre-task planning were clear – a safer workplace and better planned work tasks.
Project in figures
1,300 meters of sheet-piled pier with three ferry berths including two movable truck ramps at RORO level, one container pier, 250,000 square meters of impervious surface, seven kilometers of cable/pipe trenches, 1.5 kilometers of railway track, 500,000 cubic meters of dredging, 1,500 square meters comprising staff and gate buildings.
