From drawing board to finished harbour

Full section of the Bootshafen looking towards the Kiel - Firth by the Siller landscape architecture practice
Full section of the Bootshafen looking towards the Kiel
Firth by the Siller landscape architecture practice

The embankment walls of the Bootshafen (boat harbour) had to be regularly restabilized, but 98 per cent of the roughly 100-year-old existing wooden foundation piles had survived and could still function as essential components of the load-bearing structure. The damaged pile heads were removed and individual foundation sections reinforced with steel piles, and braced.

The Bootshafen acquired an embankment promenade running almost all the way round it because it was statically necessary to connect the pile heads with a solid reinforced concrete slab.

Construction work at the Bootshafen basin
Construction work at the Bootshafen basin
Renewal of the foundation piles
Renewal of the foundation piles

The foundations of the embankment walls were sealed on the water side by prefabricated reinforced concrete apron. This prevents ageing and damage by pests like the dreaded shipworm. The foundations were further relieved by lowering the embankment edges, which was desirable anyway for functional and urban development reasons, and by the reduction of soil pressure associated with this change. The new quayside structure is further reinforced with sand and substrate piled up below water level, which also gives the Bootshafen a clean harbour base.

Pictorial material: Kieler Stadtarchiv, Stadt- und Schifffahrtsmuseum, Landeshauptstadt Kiel/Tiefbauamt

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