Fremantle Inner Harbour Deepening & Berth WorksThiess in a joint venture with Georgiou Group is undertaking the reconstruction of Berth 10 as well as the strengthening of Berths 4 to 9 and the construction of a new one kilometre seawall as part of the Harbour Deepening Project.

Berth 10
The original berth 10 was built in the 1950s and needed to be replaced with a stronger structure so that it could be used for container ships as well as roll-on/roll-off vessels and other general cargo shipping.

One of the initial challenges was removing existing wharf structures that needed to be replaced. The fender piles were embedded six metres below the seabed and the extraction method involved vibrating the pile to loosen the bond between the pile and the seabed material.

The reconstruction involved cutting up and removing sections of the concrete deck in a planned sequence to allow for piling and the installation of the new deck. This jigsaw approach ensured there was always sufficient wharf space to support construction equipment and workers.

Berths 4 to 9
The strengthening works to Berths 4 to 9 are being done in five discrete stages so the port can continue to operate normally. Up to 280 metres of operational quay length will be closed at any one time.

Stage one, which involves strengthening the first 70 metres of Berth 9, was done concurrently with the completion of the Berth 10 reconstruction.

This ensured 250 metres of completed wharf space was available for container shipping when other sections of North Quay closed for strengthening. Before reconstruction, Berth 10 did not have the structural capacity for container shipping.

Rous Head Seawall
The seawall forms the outer edge of a new 27 hectare reclamation which contains around 1.65 million cubic metres of material dredged from the Inner Harbour and its approach channels.

In total, about 320,000 tonnes of rock material will be used in the construction of the seawall and 49,000 square metres of geotextile lining.