FrameworkContinuing the attributions conferred by Decree-Law No. 16/2014 of 3 February, the DGRM's function is to guarantee the protection and protection of fishing and recreational boating ports, ensuring the structural integrity of the associated maritime-port infrastructures, a task that presupposes the performance of maritime works.
The maritime works promoted by the DGRM are, to a large extent, works for the rehabilitation and / or reinforcement of breakwaters and / or protection piers, and as such are works which generally imply the performance of services and accessory works, including top-hydrographic surveys, underwater inspections, geological prospecting and ancillary dredging.
The majority of breakwaters and / or protection jetties have a type profile characterized by protection mantles consisting of prefabricated rock fills and concrete blocks (tetrapod and antsier) with TOT core, constituting a prism, not infrequently, based on sandy substrate. In this context, rehabilitation works, as a rule, involve refilling and / or replacement of rock fills and concrete blocks and, sometimes, reinforcement work at foundations.
As a tool to support decision-making in the prioritization of interventions / works, the DGRM has followed the program of Systematic Observation of Maritime Works (OSOM) implemented since 1986 by the various entities that preceded the former Port and Maritime Transportation Institute, I.P. (IPTM) with authority functions in port infrastructures.
The maritime works observation program includes the monitoring of the behavioural evolution of marine protection structures, allowing to optimize its structural strength and performance, in view of the associated functional requirements, with three main objectives:
- Enable the detection of anomalies in the behaviour of the structures in time to allow corrective intervention that is appropriate and to minimize the economic consequences of eventual performance failures and / or breaks
- To compare the actual behaviour of the structures with the behaviour predicted in the project, allowing to improve design criteria and to better specify the properties of the materials to be used, the manufacturing techniques of some components and the constructive processes to be adopted
- Provide a judicious and technically sustained selection of the structures most needed in terms of repair works and / or maintenance works.
At present the OSOM program is being reformulated in order to use the means / tools to support the behaviour of the most current infrastructures, taking advantage of the technological evolution that has been observed in recent years.