Breakwater Port Oriel, Ireland
Port Oriel is a fishing port, located on the east coast of Ireland. The port consists of a small inland harbour basin and a pier, both built in 1885. The post will be modernised and the pier will be extended. The civil construction company Lagan Construction is awarded to execute the rehabilitation and extension works. The design was prepared by RPS. Lagan Construction proposed to use the Xbloc® armour unit for both technical and economical reasons.
Port Oriel is the first Xbloc® application in Europe.
Placement grid model
Together with the University of Delft, DMC developed a placement grid model. This was firstly used in Ireland. Placement drawings are derived from this model. It optimises the unit position with respect to neighbouring units. The placement grid is distorted to allow for changing bottom level and curved sections; the model optimises the distorted placement grid.
Project Milestones
| July 2005: |
Start of unit production |
| September 2005: |
Droptests |
| June 2006: |
Start of unit placement |
| August 2006: |
Placement of units on round head |
| February 2007: |
Breakwater completed |
Project details
| Hs | 5.7 m |
| Length of breakwater | 170 m |
| Size of Xblocs® | 4 m3 |
