84 Design Principles and Considerations of Port Elements

straight portion should be equal to at least
three to five times the length of the largest
ships negotiating the channel.
The channel layout depends on its opera-
tional characteristics such as volume of
traffic, speed of ships negotiating the chan-
nel, and associated environmental condi-
tions. Operational conditions usually deter-
mine the number of ship maneuvering lanes.
A one-way channel is used when the theo-
retical channel occupancy (t) equal to t =
Lc!Vmax, is less than the average passing
time interval required, where Lc is the
length of the channel and vmax is the maxi-
mum speed of a ship passing the channel.
The latter is expressed as 24/Qt> where Qt
is the average 24-h volume of traffic.
In the case where Lc!Vmax > 24/Qt> a
two-way channel has to be considered. If
dictated by economy, a compromise solution
may be adopted which may be a one-way
channel with designated passing areas. In
this case, the maximum distance between
designated passing areas should not exceed
24Vmax/Qt.
It should be noted that in most cases,
vmax is a function of channel geometry (e.g.,
width and depth); vmax is greater in wider
and deeper channels with gentle slopes than
in narrow channels with steep slopes. How-
ever, bearing in mind that under vmax > 5
separation scheme. This involves separat-
ing passing operations by a predetermined
minimum distance and width of a separa-
tion zone (PIANC, 1980).
An inland waterway channel will usually
follow a natural river course with cutoffs, as
necessary, to eliminate sharp bends. Ade-
quate straight segments between bends are
required to allow a large ship or tows the
time to obtain proper alignment for passing
through the next bend. PIANC (1985) rec-
ommends that a straight leg between two
bends should not be shorter than 5 lengths
of a design ship. River training structures
are usually needed in erodible rivers to
maintain channel dimensions and align-
ment.
In all difficult cases of channel design,
physical or mathematical models can help
to estimate shoaling rates for various chan-
nel layouts.
2.3.5 Channel cross section
The channel cross section may be fully or
semirestricted (Fig. 2-3) and should satisfY
the following basic requirements: provide
(a)

mjs conditions, a ship's squat sharply in-

creases, ship movement in channels should
be limited to 5 mjs from the point of view ;:::::;:;:;:::::::::::::;:;.. ··::?::::::::::::::::::::·:·:
of economy of construction and mainten-
ance. Note that, in general, to keep a ship ·-:,:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::;:::;:;:::;:;::;:;::;:::;:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::;:::;::;::::::::;::::::::::::::::::::::::t'' ' ' ':::··

under control she has to maintain at least

vmin > 1-1.5 mjs.
The safety of navigation in a channel is (b)
to a large extent related to the traffic den-
sity as well as to diversity of ship type (e.g.,
large or small, fast or slow, etc.) which tran-
sit the channel. The volume of traffic deter-
mines the frequency of passing and over-
taking maneuvers in the channel. The risk
of accidents during such maneuvers can be
greatly reduced if navigation adheres to a
one-way system by establishing a traffic