BAM Infraconsult, under its trade name Delta Marine Consultants, has signed two new license agreements for Xbloc projects in Costa Rica and in the Dominican Republic.
In Costa Rica, a consortium of Van Oord and BAM International is constructing the Puerto Moin Container Terminal for APM Terminals.
The breakwater for this terminal is 1.5km long and will be protected by around 14,000 Xblocs with a weight of 10 tons each. Production of the blocks will start in August 2015. Van Oord will start placement of the blocks on the breakwater in November 2015.
A consortium of Odebrecht, Tecnimont and Ingeniería Estrella is constructing the Punta Catalina Power Plant in the Dominican Republic. Within this project, two breakwaters will be built to protect the cooling water intake structure from hurricane waves.
These breakwaters will be protected by around 4,000 Xblocs of 7 and 9 tons. Physical model tests for the breakwaters are currently ongoing at the Aalborg University in Denmark. Block production and placement will start this summer.
Xbloc
Xbloc is an innovative and patented concrete armor unit which has been developed by BAM for shore protection and breakwaters and has successfully been applied on various locations around the world since 2004. Xblocs have a high hydraulic stability and offer a large cost reduction.
The structure requires considerably less concrete compared to other armoring systems and furthermore the units can be placed faster.
Through this innovation breakwaters with Xblocs are more cost effective and sustainable than traditional breakwaters.