
ArcelorMittal delivers 9.000 tonnes of steel sheet piles for the port infrastructures in Sochi.
Sochi is a city of around 400.000 people situated in Krasnodar, the third largest region in Russia, and will host the Winter Olympic Games in February 2014. ArcelorMittal Sheet Piling got involved right from the beginning in this huge project and supplied more than 9.000 tonnes of steel sheet piles for the port infrastructures in Sochi since 2008.
The first project was the Port Sochi Imeretinskaya, which is located close to the airport and the new Olympic Park, and some 30 km from downtown Sochi. The new port consists of a new breakwater, around 1,200 m long, which is also utilised in a first phase as a quay wall on approximately 520 m. On the land side, a new 800 m long quay wall was built. The main mission of this infrastructure is to allow transhipment of bulk construction material used for the erection of the new buildings and sports arena. After the Olympics, a portion of this new port structure will be rehabilitated and transformed into a marina to accommodate small size boats and yachts. ArcelorMittal shipped the sheet piles from its Belval mill in Luxembourg to Antwerp, loaded them on vessels that sailed directly to the existing Port of Sochi. The material was then trans-shipped into smaller barges, and shipped to the new port. The layout of the breakwater is a concrete deck on piles, with a gravity type breakwater on the sea-side. The aim of the selected AZ 19-700 sheet piles is to act as an impervious wall and stop the water flow through the breakwater, as well as to reinforce the earth retaining structure. The quay wall is built as a typical anchored wall, with a main wall and anchor wall in AZ 37-700 fixed with steel tie-rods. The draught level is -9.20 m. Some 8.220 tonnes of sheet piles in lengths from 8.0 m up to 30.5 m and in high steel grade S 430 GP were shipped between June and October 2009 in three lots. The sheet piles were then coated in a workshop inside the port. Sheet piles were driven into the ground with vibratory hammers, and fixed on top and at the water level to the steel tubes through a waler. The main advantage of the sheet piles against alternative solutions was the very short execution time and the quite rough weather conditions at the job-site, especially in winter. In fact, it was mainly the weather conditions in the coastal area that lead to such a rigid solution for the breakwater.
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| Port Sochi Imeretinskaya, Cargo Terminal | Typical cross section of the quay wall. |
Our sheet piling department works predominantly on projects in collaboration with the end users and stakeholders. YUGTranstroy (subdivision of Transtroy) was the general contractor and the installation was performed by BMGS, one of the largest Russian construction companies.
The AZ 19-700 and AZ 37-700 are the most efficient sheet piles worldwide in their range and they are exclusively produced at Mill 2 in Belval, Luxembourg.
The second project was located in the old Port of Sochi, close to the city. The new structure serves as a passenger terminal capable of accommodating large cruise ships during the Olympics. Two wharfs were built with sheet piles: the Federal Security Service harbour wall, and the Federal Custodial Service harbour wall, using mainly AU 25, in steel grade S 355 GP, length of 20.4 m (around 720 tonnes), AZ 26-700 and AZ 13-10/10 in lengths up to 8 m (around 160 tonnes). These sheet piles were shipped by vessel directly to the Port of Sochi in July 2012 in a single lot.
The design engineering company for both projects was MST (MorStroyTechnology), a renowned Russian company from St. Petersburg.
Overall, more than 9.000 tonnes of steel sheet piles manufactured in Luxembourg were delivered for the construction of different harbour infrastructures in 2009 and 2012 and definitely contributed to the completion on time of all the infrastructure and civil works for the Sochi Winter Olympics 2014.
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English version - ArcelorMittal delivers 9.000 tonnes of steel sheet piles for the port infrastructures in Sochi 


Italian version - ArcelorMittal fornisce 9.000 tonnellate di palancole in acciaio per infrastrutture portuali a Sochi
Spanish version - ArcelorMittal produce 9.000 toneladas de tablestacas para las infraestructuras del puerto de Sochi
Polish version - ArcelorMittal dostarczył 9.000 ton grodzic na rozbudowę infrastruktury portowej w Soczi
Portuguese version - ArcelorMittal fornece 9.000 toneladas de estacas-prancha metálicas para infraestrutura portuária em Sochi