Back in Kazachstan

As I told I went for one week to the Netherlands. This was because my visa expired after a period of three months staying in Aktau and I had to request a new one. When I travelled to the Netherlands I flied via Atyrau, a city at the north side of the Caspian Sea. I stayed there for 24 hours exactly, so I had a chance to walk around the city and to visit our branch office of Witteveen+Bos in Atyrau. After that I went to the Netherlands and had a good time with family and friends. Last Wednesday I came back in Aktau and yesterday I started working again. It’s much colder these days than before I left. On day time it’s about minus six and at night about minus ten.

The week before I left we started a new project in the office. It concerns the layout of a part of the harbour in Aktau. In Aktau there’s located the biggest coastal harbour from Kazakhstan, so it’s an important place that gives access to the sea. From this place also materials will be transported for off-shore activities. The new project we started concerned the design of a quay wall with a relief floor founded on tubular piles. The relief floor will be constructed, because on location concrete modules will, with help of a multi-wheel vehicle (on shore) and a pontoon (in harbour), transported into the Caspian Sea. The relief floor takes care loads due to the module will be spread to the ground instead of to the sheet pile. In this project not only a quay wall is involved but also the layout of adjacent areas in the harbour. In this area will be land reclamation, design of trenches for drainage, utility plans for the areas and pavement layouts.

Actually this project is a continuation of an old project that was cancelled. Now a few requirements are changed and it’s decided to start a new project. Because of this we already have information from the previous project, so we can use it. My job was to collect and to order that information. After that we could start with the first drawings. The most important one (and basic for all coming drawings) is the external reference (Xref) drawing of the project location. I updated in this Xref the area to the current situation and draw the quay wall, relief floor and centerline of the sheet piles. Because this Xref is basic for other drawings it’s important to work precisely and with coordinates so you can connect the Xref with other drawings.

This project is very interesting for me because I’m involved from the start of a project with a lot of different subjects. Till now I only worked in detailing and end phases of projects. In this project it’s more important to have an overview of all the information. Yesterday and today I went on with this project and made two different overview drawings by using the Xref drawing.