Worldwide developments
The shipping industry is developing rapidly. Ship sizes are strongly growing worldwide and ports and terminals are often struggling to keep up with this growth. Due to rapid vessel developments, both horizontal dimensions (channel / turning circle dimensions) and vertical dimensions (required draft) become inadequate to guarantee safe transits. We provide consultancy services to ports and terminals to advise them how to optimize the usage of the existing wet infrastructure dimensions. Moreover, when maximum vessel sizes are reached and restructuring is inevitable, we provide design services to increase the wet infrastructure dimensions.
Often, our consultancy services make use of real-time or fast-time navigation software, desktop based or full-mission bridge simulators. For the design of harbors and channels we use desktop simulators as SHIP-Navigator, developed by Alkyon (ARCADIS). In case a new design needs to be verified on maneuverability or in case pilots need to be trained including or excluding tugboat captains, use is made of high-end simulators, such as for example available at MARIN.
Wet infrastructure optimization
Our staff has conducted several studies in the past to optimize both the vertical and horizontal dimensions of waterways. Apart from the technical aspects of port design, especially in the international market optimizations can be reached by focusing on optimizations in maneuvering strategies. These studies showed that major gains can be achieved in the optimization of nautical infrastructure by considering the 'soft' aspects.
Expertise
We have a broad expertise in the field of ports and Marine Infrastructure. Expertise includes among others:
- Port design and optimization of wet infrastructure
- Pilot and tug boat captain training
- Design of navigation channels, breakwaters and revetments
- Cable routing studies and burial depth assessments
