90 Design Principles and Considerations of Port Elements

mination of channel depth must be care-
fully evaluated.
If frequent maintenance dredging is re-
quired due to silt accumulation or littoral
drift, the dredging depth must be deeper
than the planned bottom by the amount
determined by local experience. It may vary
from 0.5 to 2.0 m, depending on local condi-
tions. It must be noted that the minimum
depth of dredging is usually determined by
the effective use of available dredging
equipment. An excess depth 0.25-0.3 m be-
low the channel design level is generally
justified without special calculations.
An access channel constructed in a hard
bottom should be thoroughly swept to make
sure that all obstructions, such as boulders,
rocky pinnacles, and so forth, above the
required depth are removed.
For more useful practical information the
reader is referred to PIANC (1989), Herbich
(1992), Eryuzlu et al. (1994) and TERMPOL
(1983).
Finally, the possibilities of human re-
lated errors must be considered. The first
step in channel design is the determination
of the width ofthe maneuvering lane, which
is defined as the portion of the channel
within which the ship can safely maneuver
without encroaching on the bank clearance,
or without approaching dangerously close
to a passing ship so that interference be-
tween the ships can occur. In the case of
two-way channels where traffic involves
large vessels, a ship clearance lane must be
provided between the two maneuvering
lanes.
The width of the maneuvering lane (Bm)
(Fig. 2-5) may be determined by Eq. (2- 4):
Bm = Ls sin {3 + Bmax cos {3 + a (2-4)

2.3.5.2 Channel Width

This is the nominal width at the bed of
the channel over which the nominal chan-
nel depth is ascertained. The width of a
channel is determined from the maximum
beam and maneuvering characteristics of
the design ship, the volume and nature of
traffic (e.g., regular or involving dangerous
cargos, one- or two-way) channel cross-
section geometry (e.g., fully restricted or
semirestricted), current and wave action,
and winds that will cause the vessel to yaw.
Furthermore, a safety margin is usually
added to ensure a ship safe travel through
the channel.
It should be pointed out that quite often
during the design process adequate and re-
liable data on ship maneuvering character-
istics are usually not available. The size of
B
the design ship must therefore be treated
with caution; the bigger the ship, the more
predominant becomes the influence of iner-
tia and the greater the necessary channel Figure 2-5. Plan for passing ships in two-way navi-
width. gation channel.