Aqaba New Port

The Aqaba New Port development was a significant project of national importance in Jordan, involving the full relocation of Aqaba Port to a new location within the southern industrial zone of ASEZA, near the border with Saudi Arabia. This project required innovative solutions to meet strict corrosion and structural requirements while being robust enough to withstand seismic activity and the potential for liquefaction. Relocating the port posed significant challenges due to the testing conditions in the region. The soil in the Levant region comprises silt and sand deposits and is prone to seismic ground activity, which can lead to instability. 

Ayesa was appointed as the civil, structural, and geotechnical designer for the Aqaba New Port project. Our involvement spanned from initial concept drawings to completed detailed designs, including designs for the marine services harbour, dredging, and reclamation work. We conducted a site-specific seismic review, including a Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA), to ensure the design met national guidance and case history evidence. We concluded that a seismic acceleration of marginally higher magnitude than allowed in the FEED was more appropriate. This refined approach to seismic design and liquefaction provided a robust and cost-efficient design. The seismic design of the quay walls followed a performance approach described in PIANC (2001) Seismic Design Guidelines for Port Structures. In a confined, complex corner of the quay wall with significant congestion of large diameter tie rods, we designed a bespoke single splice plate to transfer the anchors into a single large splice plate, then onwards to the tie-back wall systems, saving significant buildability issues on-site. 

Ayesa designed solutions to meet strict corrosion and structural requirements while being robust enough to withstand significant seismic events (0.224g) and the potential for liquefaction. We explored numerous value engineering solutions with the client, many of which were adopted in the design. These included: 

• Spiral welded tubular steel combi piles with varying tube thickness, saving steel over approximately 40% of pile length. 
• Redesigning the tie-back anchor system to an embedded wall system, reducing the need for bulk excavations. 
• Introducing precast elements for the coping skirt walls. 

Additionally, Ayesa designed a bespoke tie rod connection plate at a quay wall return corner to simplify the tie-back system arrangement. These solutions improved durability and program efficiency, resulting in cost-effectiveness for the client.