Port of Poti Breakwater, Poti, Georgia

The port of Poti, Georgia, is protected by a breakwater with a length of approx. 1800 m. The breakwater has been constructed in several construction stages between 1856 and 1929. General maintenance was performed in 1957 and 1972 when concrete blocks were placed in front of the existing seawall. The Port of Poty Authority decided to upgrade the existing breakwater to make it fit for purpose.

In order to improve the function of the port, the existing breakwater needed to be rehabilitated. Boskalis has been contracted to execute the rehabilitation works based on a preliminary design utilizing Accropode armour units. However the contractor preferred to use Xbloc® armour units instead and DMC was asked to prepare the detailed design of an alternative solution utilizing Xbloc® armour units.

The detailed design included 2D physical model testing which was performed at Delft Hydraulics in the Netherlands and supervised by DMC. Besides the stability of the Xbloc® armoured breakwater, special attention has been paid to the amount of overtopping volume during operational and extreme wave conditions.