Inclination behaviour of historic quay walls: A study into the value of inclination sensing for quay wall failure assessment in Amsterdam

The inner-city of Amsterdam contains a large network of vulnerable, historic quay walls. Most of these quay walls consist out of masonry gravity walls placed on wooden relieving floors and wooden foundation piles. Due to the changing surface loading conditions behind the wall and the degradation of the masonry and wooden structures over the last...

Modelling interactions between quay walls and utility lines: In the inner-city of Amsterdam

The historic inner-cities in The Netherlands are largely known for their iconic channels and their accompanying quay walls, of which a significant number were constructed over 100 years ago. Due to the limited available space in the sub-surface of the urban environment, a high number of utility lines (i.e. potable water pipes and sewer systems)...

The historic quay walls of Amsterdam: A study into the hidden structural capacity of masonry quay walls under the condition of a partly failing foundation

The city of Amsterdam contains about 1600 bridges and 600 kilometres of quay walls. Of these walls, about 200 kilometres are of masonry walls placed on a timber floor and founded on timber piles. These quay walls are sometimes over 100 years old. Due to the increasing loads in the past century and the degrading of material properties in the...

Timber Creep of Historic Urban Quay Walls: The influence of timber creep on the assessment of inner-city quay walls

Amsterdam and many other cities consist of a network of old quay walls, which sometimes have been constructed over a century ago. A large uncertainty exists concerning the current safety of these quay walls and their remaining service lifetime. In the current framework for the assessment of old urban quay walls, the influence of timber creep in...

Urban quay walls: A numerical study to recognize foundation defects via masonry damage patterns

The city of Amsterdam has a large number of old quay walls with rotten foundation piles. These foundation piles need to be identified and measures need to be taken. The urban quay walls are supported by two types of foundation: pinewood piles, which are easily affected by bacterial decay and spruce piles. To understand the mechanical behaviour...