Narvik Harbour consists of four ports including LKAB’s bulk port and the central cruise quay. The harbor is ice-free and well protected from the weather. In 2005, Narvik was granted the status of "Motorways of the Sea" port in the EU system. Only Oslo has this status in addition to Narvik in Norway. The quay area also has railroad tracks connecting Narvik to the rest of Scandinavia and central Europe.


Overview of Narvik Harbour with LKAB’s bulk port closest and the old cruise quay in the middle of the picture with the famous Hurtigruta moored up. (narvikhavn.no)

One of Narvik’s goals for the future is to increase the numbers of tourist ships. In 2019, 22 ships with 28 500 passengers arrived to Narvik. The trend is clear and more ships will visit Narvik in 2020. An investment of 160 million NOK for the new quay will allow Narvik to receive even the largest cruise ships.


The new Cruise quay under construction. In the back arrival of Saga Sapphire, 33 000 gross registered tons – when it was built, it was amongst the largest passenger ships in the world at the time. (narvikhavn.no)

The new quay will be 150 meters long and will accommodate vessels with lengths up to 350 meters. These will be in gross tonnage even larger than the largest ore ships transporting LKAB’s ore to the marked. Sea Service AS acts as the main contractor for the project owned by Narvik Harbour. Fundamentering AS has been responsible for the large diameter piling.


Fundamentering AS was piling contractor for the RR700, RR900 and RR1000 piling job.

SSAB delivered 3 636 m of RR320/10 piles to Sea-Service. 99 piles were driven through the existing concrete cover of the old quay and down to the bedrock. The RR320/10 piles had two purposes; acting as corrosion protection for bearing pile and steering for the bearing pile with support from the seabed soil. “The concreted pipe in pile solution is very effective as corrosion protection or to increase the capacity without need of bigger piling equipment”, says Sondre Smeland, Technology Manager, SSAB.


Pile installation through the existing quay deck.

In total 3 800 meters RDTs220/12.5 bearing piles with SSAB's new and improved thread splices were delivered for easy installation. “The solution was prepared in cooperation with SSAB, WSP and Sea-Service”, Sondre summarizes.

Fundamentering AS installed 1 806 m of RR700/12.5, 1 460 m of RR900/16 and 430 m of RR1000/20 large diameter piles. These were driven simultaneously with the micro pile installation. They consisted of 16 axes plus three mooring-posts. Three of the axes and the mooring-post had inclined multi pile design.


Designer drawings of the new cruise quay and the existing quay that needed to be reinforced with new pile foundation. Courtesy: Norconsult

Installation went as planned and finished before schedule.