Company:
ACE Geosynthetics Inc. Taichung City,

Project Details

Fabric 1

ACETex®
Producer: ACE Geosynthetics Inc.
Supplier: ACE Geosynthetics Inc.

Fabric 2

ACETube®
Producer: ACE Geosynthetics Inc.
Supplier: ACE Geosynthetics Inc.


Design Company
ACE Geosynthetics

Fabrication Company
ACE Geosynthetics

Graphics Company
ACE Geosynthetics

Installation Company
ACE Geosynthetics


Please describe the project specifications

The largest international port in Taiwan, Kaohsiung Harbor is crucial for the industrial and economic development of southern Taiwan. To accommodate the increasing transshipping traffic within the harbor, the current holding capacity must be expanded. Thus a temporary cofferdam must be constructed to stabilize the coast of Kaohsiung Harbor while a new land reclamation container base is built. The land reclamation project will be completed in series of phases that span a period of years. Therefore, giant-sized hydraulically filled ACETubes® stacked in a 2+1 pyramid formation were used to stabilize the coastline and create the cofferdam. The total length of the cofferdam is 700.0 m and rises to a height of more than 7.5m, with a base width of 32.0m.


What was the purpose of this project? What did the client request?

The Kaohsiung City Government chose to implement an ACETube® coastal reclamation system to temporarily replace the existing reinforced concrete cofferdam due to cost effectiveness, installation efficiency and structural stability. The reclaimed land will expand the capacity of the harbor and serve as the foundation for the new container base of Kaohsiung Harbor without altering the natural ecological composition of the area.

In order to reduce the quantity of geotextile tubes installed along the coastline, enlarging the circumference of a single ACETube® to 36.0m was determined as the best solution. The excess sandy sediment along the harbor floor was dredged and used as fill material for the ACETube®. The filtration performance of each customized tube was additionally facilitated by the ACETex® nonwoven geotextile lining adjacent to the inside border which expedited the installation procedure.

After dredging, the water depth was approximately 4.0 m – 5.0 m, thus ensuring the stability of the cofferdam and coastline, with the giant-sized ACETubes® stacked in a 2+1 pyramidal configuration. The total reclaimed area will cover 162 ha of which the first phase of reclamation work accounts for 43 ha. The configuration of the geotextile tubes also considered the fluctuations in tidal sea levels to minimize the occurrence of scour of the retained fill.

In addition to providing fill for the tubes, the offshore dredging of sand also clears up unwanted sediment deposited along the harbor floor and creates more space for larger vessels to conveniently enter Kaohsiung Harbor.


What is unique or complex about the project?

Conventionally in Taiwan, reinforced concrete structures are adopted to stabilize the coast and prevent erosion. However, to provide a temporary, inexpensive coastal protection method that also reuses the sediment removed from the sea floor, the owners decided that a geotextile tube structure was the most suitable hydraulic structure for this project. Considering the variations in sea levels from 4.0 m to 5.0 m and the enormity of the 36.0 m circumference ACETubes®, submerged alignment and installation of the first layer of the triform configuration posed the most difficult component of the project.

Furthermore, to withstand the energetic wave impact at the coast, the woven polypropylene ACETex® fabric used to produce the ACETubes® has a high biaxial tensile strength of 250kN/m.


What were the results of the project?

This project was recently completed in February 2018. Land reclamation with ACETube® coastal stabilization system is a low-impact, conservative and effortless solution for extending and armoring harbor perimeters. The functions of the ACETube® are not exclusive to coastal retention of reclaimed land and coastal protection but also reduce construction costs by consuming the undesirable sediment accumulated in the harbor. This engineering method provided an economical solution with minimal technical installation and labor requirements.


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