Port Botany expansion project, Sydney, Australia: design and construction of counterfort retaining walls

Abstract

Port Botany in Sydney is the second largest container port in Australia. A recent expansion project has increased the number of berths from six to 11, which involved A$515 million (£340 million) of civil works including 1850 m additional wharf face formed by 200 concrete counterfort wall units, and 63 ha of reclaimed terminal land created from 8 m3 million of dredged fill. This paper describes the design and construction innovations developed for the 640 t wall units including using structure–soil interaction modelling to refine applied loads, finite-element modelling to assess concrete stresses and control cracking, durability design for a 100 year design life, and construction using precast methods and assembly.