As part of San Antonio Port’s expansion plans, a cross-organisational team has presented its final report assessing the structural stability and port operability of the proposed new outer breakwater in Chile.
The report was the result of more than a year’s partnership between HR Wallingford and Instituto Nacional de Hidráulica Chile (INH).
Together they built and tested models representing a huge area – the 3.9km breakwater, a sub-marine canyon and the harbour.
The main objective of this study is to assess the structural stability of a breakwater to shelter the terminals.
In terms of area replicated, it was one of the largest ever models by HR Wallingford, and in terms of time, it was one of its longest.
The results of all the assessments were passed on to the designer, SENER, which is using them to optimise the structural design before construction starts.