Year: 2014-2015

Location: Goro (FE)

Country: Italy

Volume: 2.500 m³ expanded clay 8-20 mm

Owner Builder: Comune di Ferrrara

Contractor: I.S.L.E.M. Srl

Designer: Provincia di Ferrara

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Problem / Solution

Because of rising mean sea level, more and more often the harbor of Goro (FE) was submerged in water up to 1 m high. This phenomenon made difficult or even impossible, for local fishermen, to download from the boats the freshly caught fish with serious damage to the area’s economy. To solve this problem it was decided to raise the level of the quay of 1 m.

Experience

The characteristics of the expanded clay have allowed to realize a planning fast and easy, without thinking to destroy and rebuild the quay and the existing foundations. Costs were greatly lower than alternative solutions and thanks to the lightweight, easy handling and blowing the work took place in a very short time.

Why expanded clay?

The main problem that designers had to solve was to minimize the load of the material to be used  to raise the quay because otherwise you would have to completely renovate all the foundation of the harbour (bulkheads and tie-rods). In order to maintain these structures it was chosen to realize the filling with 80 cm of expanded clay 8-20, subsequently it was made a concrete slab of 20 cm.