Rehabilitation of the old cube breakwater at Port of Poti
Summary
The breakwater of Port of Poti in Georgia has been built in phases between 1856 and 1929 During its long lifetime maintenance has been carried out to the structure by frequently adding 20-60 tons concrete cubes to the armour layer.
Due to significant settlements of the structure over time, the crest level was significantly reduced which resulted in large overtopping volumes and as a consequence in downtime of port operations. Therefore a rehabilitation project has been carried out between 2006 and 2008 by Royal Boskalis Westminster nv in order to reduce the need of maintenance and to reduce the downtime due to overtopping waves. For the rehabilitation works Xblocs and Xbases have been used. This paper will describe the different design options that have been considered for the works and how the construction equipment and method dictated the final design choices. Furthermore the construction experiences will be described.