ACN Press
The Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands has put out to tender the contracting of the second phase of the improvement and expansion works of the port of Órzola, in the Lanzarote municipality of Haría.
The award will be carried out through a contest, by means of an open procedure. The maximum bidding amount for the works has been set at 9,028,587.14 euros and the execution period for the works will be three years.
The Government of the Canary Islands has already executed a first phase of the works, but the strong waves that have reigned in the area in recent years have prevented a part of the project from being carried out through the sea as the technicians had planned, as the ideal conditions were not met for it.
In its policy of maximum respect for the environment, the Ministry of Infrastructure had been especially strict when planning the remodeling works of this port so that the impact on the natural environment of the area was as small as possible. This requirement extraordinarily complicated the construction procedure of the works, since in order not to affect the environment, it was decided to execute the protection dike by maritime means, without access from land. Operating with the necessary machinery for this required a minimum number of days of good weather, days that according to the statistics of previous years would occur with a high degree of probability, but that possibly due to the changes in weather experienced in recent years did not occur, which has not allowed the expected progress.
However, the extension of the Ribera Dock and the Transversal Dock has been achieved, actions that included a small dredging of the bottom to place the bench.
Access from land
The bad sea conditions in the area have led the Ports Area to propose a new access alternative that serves as a continuation of the previous project and allows the works to be completed with a guarantee of success. Since it is necessary to reject the maritime route as a way of executing the works, it has been decided to enable access from land to the protection dike, through which the start of the shelter work can be reached, a solution that has been agreed with the Vice-Ministry of the Environment. The access will be temporary and will be removed when the execution of the shelter is finished.
The materials chosen to form the road are metric-sized elements, riprap of one to two tons, crowned by a gabion-type mesh filled with crushed gravel and a rolling surface that allows the passage of machines. This composition will allow its removal once its access function has been fulfilled, also avoiding sporadic spills during its service due to waves.
The access, about 8 meters wide and 395 meters long, will begin on an existing road in the port's urbanization and end at the beginning of the dike.
26,000 passengers per year
The port of Órzola, located north of the island of Lanzarote, is the most favorable connection point with the island of La Graciosa, without other comparable viability alternatives. This port is used every year by about 26,000 passengers.
Currently, transfers of passengers, artisanal fishing and recreational boating are carried out in this port. However, the facilities have a low level of shelter, which forces boats to anchor. On the other hand, the docks for disembarking passengers and unloading fish are of short length and draft. The situation of the port is aggravated by the existence of numerous rocky shallows in the path followed by the boats and by the poor protection it has against waves.
On the other hand, the boats that are anchored inside the port suffer situations of notable agitation in times of storms due to the poor protection of the current dock.
Planned actions
This complicated situation of the port is what has led the Ministry of Infrastructure to proceed to its remodeling so that the boats that operate in its facilities do so in adequate safety conditions both during entry and exit operations and during mooring and anchoring in the inner dock. The project also contemplates the increase in the length of the berthing line.
With the aim of achieving safe access and anchoring conditions, the project bases its design on the construction of a detached dike to attenuate the energy of the incident waves, and on the dredging of an access channel with a sufficient permanent draft. In addition, it includes the extension of the pier-jetty by 25 meters, in order to increase the esplanade surfaces and the berthing line, allowing the stay of boats of greater length than those that currently moor in it, and achieving an improvement in the agitation conditions in the dock. To provide greater berthing length to the boats, the current Ribera dock has been extended by 25 meters.
The project also contemplates the dredging of the access channel and of the area near the current dock until achieving a minimum draft equal to 3 meters, in the 100 meters further north (mouth area of the channel), and a minimum of 2.50 meters in the rest of the dredging. The nature of the bottom material is rocky and the total volume to be dredged is estimated at about 13,000 cubic meters.
On the other hand, the extension of the Transversal dock will improve the berthing and boarding conditions by increasing the effective berthing length for an additional boat, and increasing by more than 40 percent the surface of protected water available for the anchoring of light boats in the dock.
With the extension of the Ribera dock and the pier-jetty, a greater surface of sheltered water is achieved, as well as more mooring length, and the existing esplanade surface will be increased to facilitate the access of people.
The Transversal pier-jetty has been extended by 20 meters, maintaining its typology and geometric characteristics, by means of a submerged concrete solid dike of 12.15 meters wide, with an exterior masonry cladding and protected from the overflow of the maximum waves with a one-meter-high wall-back.
The project also contemplates the installation of the necessary auxiliary elements for the berthing and mooring of boats in the docks (bollards, fenders and rings) and the marking of the non-navigable area of the outer dike, the access channel and the Transversal pier-jetty.
The marking will be composed of a new tower at the end of the Transversal pier-jetty and two spars at each end of the shelter dike. The marking of the dredged access channel will be carried out by means of four spars with signaling for their diurnal and nocturnal appreciation.
The dredging will be carried out in a phase subsequent to the execution of the dike, in sheltered waters, with the double objective of guaranteeing the safety of the boats and construction personnel and also minimizing the possible dispersion of the elements susceptible to being moved by the waves.