Best Project Airport/Port: HaDarom Port

The HaDarom project expands and modernizes Israel’s second deepwater port, which dates to the early 1960s. Added berth space accommodates the world’s largest container vessels, allowing the private terminal in Asdod to more efficiently handle growing amounts of marine cargo.

The project team from Israel, China, the U.S. and Europe made use of value engineering and technology, including a jack-walking construction platform, to boost work efficiency.

Specialized marine equipment was sourced from Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.

“Since the HaDarom port was constructed in the open sea, the key engineering challenge is the adverse wave condition,” says the team, noting normal wave heights were “not stable and safe for floating construction.”

To protect the construction area, minimize port vessel impacts and expedite work, project design featured a “temporary caisson breakwater which could be fabricated relatively quickly … and a revetment within steel pipe piles that had been driven to support a new open quay,” says Bill Paparis, project director for project lead design firm HPA Engineers PC. He adds that elimination of wick drains, use of stone columns in lieu of excavation and removal of liquefiable soils beneath breakwaters reduced cost and expedited construction.