Design Oosterweel Link with Preservation of a Historically Protected Building Samga Silo A

In the vicinity of the future Oosterweel Link, which contributes to closing the ring road around Antwerp, the historic masonry building Samga Silo A, built in 1895, is located, near the America docks in the port of Antwerp. Because of its protected status, this building must be preserved intact. This paper presents the various calculations (on behalf of client Lantis and the Rinkoniên Rechtoever contractor consortium) to estimate the possible settlements and associated crack formation in the Samga building, as a result of the construction of the Oosterweel connection and the new landscape design. First, the settlements of the building, due to the very challenging construction of the “canal zone tunnel”, consisting of four traffic tubes between two diaphragm walls with a foundation level at a depth of more than 20m, at a distance of less than 15 m from the corner of this building, were predicted using various Plaxis models. Furthermore, the settlements resulting from the construction of a temporary quay wall and the damping of the nearby dock were calculated. A piling test was also carried out to estimate the accompanying settlements and vibrations. Next, a finite element Diana model of the Samga building allows to estimate the cracking and deformation behavior of the masonry due to the expected settlements, in order to determine the maximum permitted settlement for which the building can be preserved. To meet these settlement limits, the efficiency of different measures during construction are calculated and compared with the  Plaxis models. Finally, the predicted settlements will be monitored as the activities progress. Based on the measurement results, the calculations can be validated and calibrated accordingly, so that timely action can be taken if the settlements exceed the current predictions. Figure 1: BIM-model with Samga Silo A next to canal zone tunnel Oosterweel Link