Maritime infrastructure design

Despite being Australisa's biggest container port, the Port of Melbourne needed to increase its capacity. Arup was appointed as strategic advisors, providing extensive maritime engineering services for the redevelopment which included the re-engineering of existing wharves at Webb Dock East, a new 900m wharf at Webb Dock West and associated dredging and navigation works.

Together with the Port’s personnel, we set up a series of workshops to evaluate how to accommodate the massive and continuing increase in trade. We drew up reference designs for a new 900m wharf that can support the handling of 600,000 vehicles a year, as well as the upgrade and extension of two 1970s-built berths capable of handling the next generation of quayside cranes and 14m draft vessels.

Projections suggest that the expansion project will create 2,600 direct and 1,900 indirect jobs. It will return Webb Dock East to its original role as an international container handling facility, and will introduce a new terminal capable of handling the equivalent of at least one million containers per year.