Engineering Structures, Vol. 18, No. 11, pp.

837-841, 1996
Copyright © 1996 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd
Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
0141-0296(95)00162-X 0141-0296/96 $15.00 + 0.00
ELSEVIER

Design and construction of a

concrete floating berth
P. Starr and D. A. Wainwright
Rendel Palmer and Tritton Ltd, 61 Southwark Street, London SE1 1SA, UK

A covered floating berth for submarines is described and the paper

deals in particular with the unique use of concrete in a floating
85,000t twin-hulled post-tensioned structure. The design pro-
cedures and the construction of the hull with particular reference
to the post-tensioning is described in detail. Copyright © 1996
Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

Keywords:concrete floating berth, design and construction

Introduction Design

This paper describes the design and construction of a

covered floating jetty for the new Vanguard class submar-
ines for the Royal Nawd Armaments Depot at Coulport in
Scotland which is now completed. Heavy craneage and sup-
port services will be provided to the vessels whilst moored
at the berth. A floating structure was chosen because the
water depth of 70 m and the sea-bed rock at a slope of 40 °
would have made a cortventional piled structure extremely
expensive. However, the floating solution posed additional
problems arising from the motions caused by wind, waves
and tides.
The jetty comprises twin concrete pontoons, each 200 m
long by 25 m wide, separated by 30 m of water having a
draught of 8.5 m and freeboard of 3.5 m. See Figure 1 for
a plan of the facility and Figure 2 for a typical cross-sec-
tion. The displacement is 85,000 t. At one end the pontoons
are connected by a rigid box link similar in construction to
the pontoons. At the opposite end, the pontoons are linked
by an underwater tubular steel brace which allows vessels
with a draught of up to 13 m to enter the berth. The super-
structure over the berth is 60 m wide, a maximum of 45 m
high and composed of aluminium clad steelwork. Two
internal overhead travelling cranes and a two-leaf vertical
lift vessel access door are provided. A float-in steel caisson
gate, the same depth as the pontoons, closes the entrance
to the berth. The jetty is permanently moored to the shore
by articulating 2.5 m diameter tubular steel booms and pro-
vided with two 10 m wide steel box girder bridges to cater
for a maximum tidal range of about 5 m. Steel reinforced
rubber shear blocks at the shore ends of the mooring system
provide flexibility and considerably reduce mooring loads
compared to a rigid system.
This paper is chiefly concerned with the use of concrete
for the pontoons which provide all the buoyancy necessary
to support the facility.
Description
The large size, cost and construction time constraints ruled
out the use of special concretes.
Therefore post-tensioned and reinforced concrete with a
minimum cube strength of 50 N mm -2 at 28 days was used
with a specification aimed at achieving high density and
watertightness.
Figure 3 shows details of part of the structure. The longi-
tudinal bulkheads are placed symmetrically to coincide with
the eccentric superstructure columns. Transverse bulkheads
are provided at 30 m centres with further internal dia-
phragms at 15 m centres to match the superstructure col-
umns and support the bottom slab. An intermediate deck is
provided along each side to buttress the outer walls. Con-
tinuous service passageways are provided. Local shear
stresses were the major parameter in determining wall and
slab thickness. The base is between 500 and 700 mm thick
and the outer and inner walls generally 350 and 300 mm
thick, respectively. The deck is 350 mm thick with support-
ing beams at 1.5 m centres.
With these sizes of walls and the need to provide
reinforcement to both faces for crack control and transverse
bending there is only room for uni-direcfional post-ten-
sioning. This was incorporated longitudinally in the base,
walls and top deck for the full length of the two pontoons
and designed to resist the longitudinal bending and tor-
sional stresses. Transverse post-tensioning was considered,
but rejected because of insufficient depth in the deck slab
and congestion that would have been caused by the steel in
the anchorages. However, post-tensioning was incorporated
across the link end (see Figure 4) where the deck slab was
increased in depth to allow the longitudinal post-tensioning
to cross over the transverse post-tensioning at the two link
end comers. Temporary holes were left in the deck slabs
to allow access for the stressing jacks. The column bases

837
838 Concrete floating berth: P. Starr and D. A. Wainwright
FACILITY
NORTH
ENCLOSURE BUILDING
/ 'i _ALTERNATIVECAISSON
200m ,, / G A T E MOORING
OUTER BERTH
.UNDERWATER BRACE

-?$.0
, r - - r6'~.-~,~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . -~T -CAISSON
GATE
I | i,':ll'_':i J l N CLOSED POSITION
BOm ,' // P;]!i
i ~-L.'.~: - so. o
", 30mJ COVERED BERTH ~,~:~!
-SO0
I I~-CAISSON GATE MOORED
,~,~1 I IN OPEN POSITION
_.1.

-25.0

60t
ti ~oo .~// ~,,~o_ .~// L=lil

..... ~ J ~i~ L~oo,,.o , , o o . t ! ~ r " ' ~

I ,o~ .I
,~.Y su,','oR, .RE.
Figure I Plan

61 .Sm

OVERHEAD TRAVELL IN4 GRANE

OVERHEAD TRAVELLING CRANE

SHORE LOCK
SIDE E SIDE
o
('N

OOCKINO TROLLEY
RAILS--..__
NOORIN0 80014

LEVEL

":l- ! = ~ ~ ~ 1
¢N
,..
1-
DRAUOHT
e4

PONTOON PONTOON

'-
25m I 30m I -
25m

Figure 2 Cross-section
Concrete floating berth: P. Starr and D. A. Wainwright 839

LE~I MAIND I ~ ( ~ FALL

T ;. • ,. , ; ,

SERVICE PASSAGEWAYS " "

PT A ~ 3E DRAINAGE PORT
~=OST-TENSIONEO TENDONS
.V .Vq:P,
'_'~" II r 1/. LAYERS OF STEEL BAR 'J DRAINAGEPORT/ I*1- ¢.:,:
REINFORCEMENT NOT SHOWNI
300ram
.o,i- i-
LEVEL3
OETCK BEAM
.............. 1200- 1 ,~o,,,,,,
1 , ! t °

LEVEL& BILGE
T
•

.,=
BALLAST TA

-I
|

IOm

25m
• • e • •

ill
• •
BALLAST TANK

• • •

7.5 m
' li
• • •

J_
1
Figure3 Cross-section ot: outer pontoon

16.0 m(~
t,t
'S 3m _:_ 5',~m _ ; _ 7-Sm

T -I m
LEVEL I MAIN
r- • • • • If DECK

i
!
i
o
f,.j ILEVEL2 PASSAGE
SERVICE

BEAM

LEVEL 3 MACHINE
t OECK

LEVEL/, BILGE
f

Figure4 Cross-section of link end

and mooring booms were bolted to the concrete hull by ditions were modelled using springs and restrained free-
post-tensioned Macalloy bars. doms to represent mooring boom articulation and vertical
springs to represent buoyancy stiffness. Static loadings
Analysis were applied to represent wave, wind, dead, ballast and pre-
The finite element membrane method was chosen to ana- stress forces. Different combinations of live load were used
lyze the global loading because of its flexibility in allowing to represent maximum hogging, sagging, torsion and rack-
a detailed model of the link end to be used with a relatively ing at key sections. Following the initial finite element
coarse model of the straight pontoon sections. Support con- membrane analysis, adjustments were made to the post-ten-
840
sioning to achieve the most economic and effective use of
the prestress.
The transverse loading of individual panels and loaded
areas of the structure arising from water and plant loads
were analysed by local framework analysis and the results
combined with the direct and shear stresses obtained from
the global analysis to check concrete stresses and reinforce
the members. Special attention was paid to areas of high
external load such as column bases, mooring boom connec-
tions and bridge supports. The chosen thickness of the con-
crete sections was confirmed and no shear reinforcement
was required except as conventional stirrups in the deck
beams and column bases.
A major aim was durability of the concrete structure
requiring minimum maintenance and to achieve water-
tightness. The specification was designed to produce high
density concrete with a minimum 28 day cube strength of
50 N mm -2 using quality controlled methods of mixing and
placing. 30% pulverized fuel ash was incorporated. Cover
to external reinforcement and ballast tanks is 50 mm with
75 mm in the splash zone and 30 mm for internal surfaces.
Waterstops were incorporated in all construction joints.
Post-tensioning
As already noted the pontoons were post-tensioned longi-
tudinally and transversely across the link at the closed end
of the berth. The stresses required by the design after allow-
ance for losses were 6 N mm -2 in the outer pontoon,
9 N mm -2 in the top, 3 N mm -2 in the bottom of the inner
pontoon and 4 N mm -2 across the link end. This was achi-
eved mainly by use of 19 strand cables with 27 strand ten-
dons being used in the more highly stressed areas. 7-wire,
15.7 mm super grade strand with low relaxation was used
with the VSL pre-stressing system. In total, there were 258
tendons which varied in length between 60 and 190 m. The
tendon ducts were positioned at the centre lines of walls
and slabs to avoid eccentricities in the applied stress, and
most tendons were aligned to be straight except at anchor-
ages.
All tendons were anchored inside the hull to avoid any
corrosion problems. The stressing was stopped-off in three
stages 15 m apart near the ends of the pontoons and in two
stages at the link end in order to avoid abrupt changes in
the concrete stresses. Reinforced anchor blocks were con-
structed at each end of each tendon in order to resist burst-
ing stresses and transfer the load to the structure. These
blocks were either 'in-line' or 'blister' blocks, depending
on the clearance requirements for the stressing jacks. The
tendons in the main deck and external walls and the bilge
slab were curved out locally at each end into 'blister'
blocks, whereas the tendons located in internal walls were
usually in-line blocks involving a temporary opening in the
wall for jacking. 'Blister' blocks were used when access
difficulties prevented this.
The tendons were fully grouted to prevent destressing
in the event of collision damage and to improve corrosion
resistance. A separate full-scale trial, 155 m long, involving
three full length tendons was used to test the stressing pro-
cedures and, in particular, the grouting and grout vent-spac-
ing. Vents at 30 m gave similar results to vents at 6 m and
therefore a 30 m spacing was adopted. Sections of the trial
were broken out to check the adequacy of grouting which
was excellent, with full penetration of grout into the tendon
and only an insignificant small lens of air remaining at the
Concrete floating berth: P. Starr and D. A. Wainwright
top of the duct. The grout used in the trial and throughout
construction was an ordinary portland cement grout with
0.36 W/C ratio and Cormix SP4 superplasticiser 1% by
weight of cement.
Construction
General
Construction of the jetty started in 1989 in a dry dock in
the Firth of Clyde. It was fully pre-tensioned and brought as
near final completion as possible including superstructure,
cladding and crane erection all in the dry dock. The dock
was then flooded, the facility moored and the dock entrance
dredged out. The dock was deep enough to keep the jetty
floating at all states of the tide. With a suitable calm
weather window forecast and the facility fitted with a tem-
porary brace across the open end, it was towed a distance
of 40 kilometres to its final position at Coulport. There, the
underwater brace was fitted and the mooring booms and
bridges finally connected up.
Construction of the concrete hull was started at the link
end and progressed by stages along each pontoon arm
towards the open end. Reinforcement was in four layers
in each wall, generally at 150 mm spacing, bar sizes were
generally between 20 and 32 mm. Galvanized steel ducts
for the post-tensioning were fixed between the normal
reinforcement of walls and slabs before casting. The ducts
intended for housing the 19 strand tendons were 110 mm
diameter, whereas those for the 27 strand tendons were
140 mm diameter. These are larger in diameter than the
normal recommended to ease threading and to facilitate
grouting of the unusually long tendons. During construc-
tion, congestion of the steel reinforcement was experienced,
particularly at wall intersections, blister junctions and
around openings and it was often necessary to locally repo-
sition and adapt reinforcement.
Post-tensioning
All ducts were cleaned before installation of the tendons.
This involved rodding, where a wooden dolly was pulled
through the duct to locate any blockages. Occasionally,
when a blockage could not be removed by the dolly, a
reaming tool was used. Following rodding the ducts were
flushed using high velocity water until a sample of water
from the flushing was reasonably clear.
Originally it was planned that all tendons were to be
installed in the duct by pushing. This involves 'firing' indi-
vidual strands into the ducts by a hydraulic pusher. A cat-
flap circuit breaker at the far end automatically stopped the
pushing when the strand reached the far end. However, due
to the intense timetable the sub-contractor decided to both
push and winch tendons. Winched tendons were prefabri-
cated in a remote area of the site by 'firing' strands into a
straight duct to the required length and cast-welding one
end of the tendon. These strand bundles were then pulled
through the ducts using a winch.
Once the tendons had been installed they were stressed
in a pre-agreed sequence to ensure an even distribution of
stresses throughout the structure at every stage. Each end
of the tendon was 'blocked and wedged' and then the jack
was seated on the anchor block. For safety, before stressing
commenced all personnel not involved in the stressing were
removed from the cell and warning signs were erected at
both ends of the tendon. It had originally been intended to
Concrete floating berth: P. Starr and D. A. Wainwright
jack both ends of all tendons. However, extensions meas-
ured compared to calculated values were such that minimal
'wobble' friction was experienced. Therefore large numbers
of later stressed tendon,; were jacked from one end only.
The jacks used during post-tensioning stressed all the
strands simultaneously which speeded up the stressing
operation but restricted manoeuverability. The jacks varied
in weight between 0.4 and 2.3 t making it necessary to route
plan the movements using holding bolts and frames with
lifting tackle to position and hold the jacks. The smaller
jacks had a stroke length of 100mm and the largest
200 ram. The longer the stroke, the heavier the machine,
and generally a compromise was sought between speed of
stressing and ease of jack manoeuverability.
The theoretical exten,;ion of each tendon was calculated
prior to stressing and this was used to compare against the
actual extensions achieved during stressing as a means of
monitoring. Throughout the operation the force in the ten-
don was recorded using measurements of the pressure in
the jack by means of two calibrated pressure gauges. At
every 50 bars the extension of the tendon was measured
and recorded. Equal increments indicated an even extension
and also that there was no blockage, slippage, sticking or
other problem.
Problems with strand scoring were encountered, but
when this resulted in wires snapping the required tendon
stress was achieved by stressing at the other end. Only three
out of the 258 tendons ,;tressed had extensions outside the
specified range.
Grouting
The progress of the grout pumped into the duct through
one end was traced by means of vent pipes located along
each duct at 30 m spacing. When grout flowed through a
841
vent it was tied off, and operatives progressed to the next
vent. Success of the grouting during the operation was
monitored by observing the pump pressure and gauging the
progress of the grout along the duct. High pressures or long
waits for grout at the vents were indicative of a blockage
or a leakage. Standby plant was available to flush the grout
from out of the ducts should these set-backs occur.
As each duct was fully grouted, the pressure of the grout
in the duct was maintained at 5 bar for 2 min to ensure the
duct was full and the tendon interstices penetrated.
Conclusions
This was a large complex job with a dense array of
reinforcement and cast-in ducts within narrow walls and
slabs. Placing and compaction of 27,000 m 3 of concrete
around 8500 t. of reinforcement required great care and
attention using a combination of internal and external
vibration. When the hull was first floated there was no leak-
age, which is a tribute to all concerned and bodes well for
the future development of high strength concretes. The
completed facility has been handed over to the client.
Appendix: Principal parties concerned with
concrete hull
Client: Ministry of Defence
Project management PSA Projects Ltd
Design and supervision: Rendel Palmer and Tritton
Project coordinators: Wimpey Major Projects
Main contractors: Costain/Taylor Woodrow joint
venture
Post-tensioning sub- Balvac Whitley Moran
contractor: