Dikkowita Fishery Harbour, Dikkowita, Sri Lanka

The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources commissioned the construction of a new fishery port at the south-eastern coast of Sri Lanka, about 6 km north of Colombo Port. The new Dikkowita Fishery Port serves as an operation base for local fishermen and provides sheltered berthing for approximately 500 fishing vessels, up to 40m in length and is one of South East Asia’s largest fishery harbours. It encloses an area of about 14 ha protected by two breakwaters of a total length of almost 1200 m. DMC has been involved in all aspect of the design including structural, geotechnical and coastal engineering.

Design Involvement

In addition to geotechnical and structural design of all Marine Facilities, DMC have performed comprehensive numerical modelling involving wave transformation, sedimentation and wave penetration studies. Since the new breakwaters are situated on top of an existing steep sandstone reef, a detailed assessment of the local conditions was required. This included 2D physical model testing performed at DMC’s in-house wave flume laboratory in the Netherlands.

DMC also provided assistance/ supervision of 3D physical model testing at LHI in Sri Lanka. Besides the stability of the exposed breakwater toe, the extremely complex subsoil conditions throughout the project area made standard solutions impossible and required particular attention during design of all marine structures.