Operating equipment - ballast system
During closure the retaining walls move in two directions. Apart from the horizontal movement out of the parking dock the walls also move up and down in the waves when being sunk down and refloated again. The ballast system in the retaining wall facilitates the sinking and refloating of the retaining wall. When the remote-controlled inlet-valves are opened, water flows into the specially designed ballast tanks in the retaining wall. In order to ensure that the wall sinks stably, the water must flow into all the tanks evenly.Pumps set in the retaining wall expel the ballast water from the retaining wall when the latter needs to be raised again. Each retaining wall is fitted with 30 pumps and 14 chaser-pumps to remove the last remaining water. The capacity of the pumps varies from 1.6 kW to 40 kW.