Together with the Smart-Port research institute, Port of Rotterdam uses all means from scientific research to pilots within infrastructure projects to enhance the capabilities of the Port Instructure.
The abstract will give an insight in which techniques we have used to future proof our port infrastructure.
There will be no scientific paper but an well documented presentation about the challenges and proven techniques we used in the last 2 years. The results from these techniques will be shared the presentation. Most of the techniques can be used by other ports to improve the capabilities of their port infrastructure.
The Ports in Holland, of which the Port of Rotterdam is by far the biggest and most advanced port, have according to the World Economic Forum the best port infrastructure in the world. This is for us not a call to sit back and relax but instead to face our challenges head on and see how we can overcome our challenges by using our infrastructure network to the fullest.
The biggest challenge we are facing are the following:
- Increasing ship sizes in different parts of the port
- Autonomous shipping
- Changing cargo flows and a more circular economy
- A large dependency on oil based products which will not last for another 30 years
- Port infrastructure which has surpassed the design life time but needs to cope with higher demands, changing functionality and customer needs.
- The integration of infrastructure and logistics so both aspects can exel together.
But building infrastructure is no more than a means to an end.We are focussing on infrastructure and the network because we believe that everything we do should contribute to the fact that our tenants can do their business by using our infrastructure network. We are achieving this by creating more time for the customers to use the infrastructure and using the (hidden) capacity of the quay walls.
This requires Digitisation of infrastructure, insight into the actual use, insight into the actual load limitations.
By 2035 the port infrastructure will be so smart and adaptive that it can be adapted to changing customer needs and will be optimally tailored to new logistics concepts
We are looking at this from two perspectives:
- Life cycle performance and life cycle extension
- Smartening the infrastructure by using remote sensing, Structure health monitoring and digitisation.
Ad 1. Life cycle performance and lice cycle extension of maritime port infrastructure:
Challenges:
- How do we extend the lifetime of 50% of all quay walls in the port area
- How do we overcome the uncertainties in a quay wall structure and turn them in to strengths?
- How do we cope with changing Customers requirements, functionalities and demand for more capacity on the existing quay walls
- How do we shorten the realisation time for quay walls and limit time for maintenance
- How do we bring conservative theory in line with the actual use of the infrastructure
- How do we cope with the fact that there are nog appropriate design guide lines.
We are aiming for the following results in the upcoming years:
- Substantially lower construction and maintenance costs (> 20%),
- Substantially shorter lead time for the realisation of the infrastructure
- Enhancement functionality existing quay walls for customers (higher site loads and deeper vessels)
Ad 2. Smartening the infrastructure by using remote sensing, Structure health monitoring and digitisation.
Challenges:
- adopting the latest technologies in maritime infrastructure, such as remote sensing and robotics to enhance the capacity of the infrastructure and reduce downtime.
- Smart use of large amounts of available port data, such as hydrometeorology, sensor data quay walls and AIS
- Smart, real-time measurement of actual use vs capacity
- Extending the service life of existing quay walls by combining owner and user data.
What are we aiming for in the upcoming years
- Optimisation of usage by customers based on real-time data
- Maximum Uptime through smart quay walls that inform timely about parts to be replaced soon
- Bringing theory in line with practice by introducing data of the current use into the design process
- Creating a digital twin of the port.
For both of these perspectives the presentation will have examples and suggestions what can be done to overcome the challenges and enhance the capabilities of the infrastructure to suit the needs of our customers. The Maritime Port infrastructure will be used as an example in these cases. Insight will be given in the techniques that are being used successfully by the Port of Rotterdam.
Author: E. van der Wal,
Port of Rotterdam Authority, Port Development, PO Box 6622, 3002 AP Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Phone +31 10 252 1010 , Mail: e.wal@portofrotterdam..com
