The Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing of the Canary Islands Government, Sebastián Franquis, recently signed the declaration of emergency for the contracting of works to act urgently in the repair of the Órzola Port docking dock. The works, which began this week and will last for just over three months, will invest 332,420 euros to guarantee the safety of the port that connects Lanzarote with the island of La Graciosa.
The works have begun with the removal of rubble and other elements from the bottom of the dock to proceed with the repair of the coping (edge) of the dock in the coming weeks. The work to be carried out will consist of attaching to the current facing a new coping parallel to the existing one with its own load-bearing capacity that, once built, will shore up the previous one, which will remain behind the new one. In addition, the subsoil of the existing esplanade on the dock will be consolidated with concrete injections.
The schedule established by the technicians to execute this emergency work is as follows: leveling the foot of the current dock with concrete, removing rubble and chipping; placement of self-supporting "T"-shaped elements arranged in rows to create the new coping; and finally, concreting in the back to form a monolithic whole.
This option has been chosen because "these works, compared to reconstruction, are faster and cleaner, since most of the elements are prefabricated and the necessary technical means are "lighter and quieter for the neighboring population than excavators and trucks", according to the Government of the Canary Islands. In addition, it is stated that "the impact on shipping companies that connect the two islands is also less because the area where the works will be carried out is very specific and limited, so the service between Lanzarote and La Graciosa can be maintained without difficulty.
This work is planned after the technicians of Puertos Canarios verified a "specific loosening" in the dock that, "however, did not pose any risk to the normal operation of the dock during the months of July and August." Finally, in the month of September, there was "a new collapse in the foundation caused by the age of the facilities, their construction technique and accelerated by the constant flow of water through the dike and by the action of the propellers", which eroded the concrete of the current coping of the dock and the loosening of the infrastructure. Faced with this situation, the technicians decided to launch an urgent action "to avoid the risk of collapse of the structure of the docking dock".
