The 563-meter-long West Pier on Heligoland serves as the protective structure for the South Harbor, the lifeline of the picturesque rocky island in the middle of the German Bight. To ensure it can withstand the destructive forces of the North Sea for decades to come, the massive protective wall at the southern tip of the main island—which spans roughly one square kilometer—is undergoing a complete overhaul by 2028. The structure is held together by a particularly resilient material: the highly corrosion-resistant Top12 reinforcing steel from the Swiss Steel Group.
Superior Resilience
Top12 was specifically developed for components exposed to elevated chloride levels. The resilience of this innovative specialty steel against chloride-induced corrosion is many times greater than that of conventional reinforcing steel. The reinforcing steel provides even structures in the particularly aggressive splash and tidal zones near the sea with outstanding durability and is therefore ideally suited for critical coastal protection infrastructure, such as the West Mole on Heligoland.
Group-wide synergies
Top12 is a high-alloy, stainless steel of material grade 1.4003 with a chromium content of over twelve percent and a prime example of how the Swiss Steel Group leverages its group-wide synergies to produce materials of the highest quality and durability: In the electric arc furnace at Deutsche Edelstahlwerke (DEW) in Siegen, the billets are melted following precise analysis. At Steeltec in Emmenbrücke, Switzerland, they are hot-rolled into high-quality reinforcing steel. Final finishing takes place at the Hagen site, also a DEW plant. Here, the steel is pickled, and the coils are transformed into compact and neatly wound coils so that they can be optimally processed by customers.
Groundbreaking Pilot Project
Approximately 2,500 tons of corrosion-resistant reinforcing steel are being installed in the western wall of the South Harbor on Heligoland—the largest project to date for this material. The structure is not only a technical masterpiece but also a statement on sustainability and climate protection. On the one hand, it is being constructed using modern, clinker-reduced concrete; on the other, it utilizes Top12 green reinforcing steel from the Swiss Steel Group, which is produced in a climate-friendly manner in the electric arc furnace. Both measures will significantly reduce the CO₂footprint of the massive hydraulic structure to the minimum currently achievable with existing technology.
Furthermore, the West Pier on Heligoland is the first project of the German Federal Institute of Hydraulic Engineering (BAW) to comply with its new standard for the “Construction and Maintenance of Massive Hydraulic Structures in Seawater Environments” (MBM). The structure serves as a benchmark for future large-scale coastal protection projects in Germany, where the combination of eco-friendly material selection and technological corrosion prevention is intended to set the standard for the infrastructure of the next century. With a target service life of one hundred years, Top12 from the Swiss Steel Group is an optimally suited, permanently corrosion-resistant reinforcing steel for this purpose. Invisible from the outside, but highly effective!