London Gateway Port

London Gateway is a development on the north bank of the River Thames in Thurrock, Essex, around 20 miles east of central London.

It comprises a new deep-water port, which will be able to handle some of the biggest container ships in the world, as well as one of Europe’s largest logistics parks, providing access by road and railways to London and the rest of the country.

The construction of this new deep sea container port required the lowering of the groundwater by up to 8.5m, which is where WJ came in.

The groundwater was between two diaphragm walls – to allow the installation of the structural tie rods. The overall length of the diaphragm wall was 1.4 km and the nominal well spacing stood at 30m.

Wells were installed sequentially; the proposed pumping regime was designed to permit the installation of tie rods over a 240m stretch of the structure with the active dewatering being methodically moved as required. Wj was also involved with the dewatering that took place to permit deeper inspection of the diaphragm walls, as well as the installation of a surface water pumping station.

In total, almost 110 deep wells were installed over a 2-year contract, with pumping taking place from a maximum of 55 wells operating through 5 individual power/control systems discharging over 250 l/s. Having been hugely involved with many aspects, WJ are proud to have completed a confident and thorough undertaking of this complex contract.

Even more information on this exciting contract can be found at www.londongateway.com

For more information please visit The London Gateway website.

• LOCATION: Stanford-le-Hope, Essex
• CLIENT: DP World
• MAIN CONTRACTOR: LoRDi (Laing O’Rourke/Dredging International JV)