Reliability updating for lateral failure of historic quay walls

The historic canal walls of Amsterdam, stretching 200 km in total, are constructed as a masonry wall on a timber deck supported by vertical timber piles. Understanding the resistance against lateral failure of these quays has been challenging due to uncertainties in their working principles, geometry, soil and structural properties. This...

Collapse of the Grimburgwal, a historic quay in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

A quay wall directly next to a building, both dating from around 1870, collapsed along the Grimburgwal in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on 1 September 2020. The historic quay wall consisted of a masonry wall, built of a timber deck supported by several rows of timber piles of about 12 m long. As over 200 km of such quays exists in Amsterdam and...