GEOMETRIC DESIGN 2– GMD 711S

PORT STRUCTURES
 PORT INFRASTRUCTURE
• Port infrastructure include the following
– Breakwaters
– Harbour basin
– Channels
– Turning circle
– Berthing structures
– Land structures
• Buildings offices, work shops canteens, rest shelters, electrical substations, fire
stations etc.
– Stacking areas
• For containers
• For bulk cargo
– Railway yards
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 PORT INFRASTRUCTURE
– Road network
• Roads
• Bridges
• Culverts
– Handling equipment
• Cranes
• Floating craft
• Motor vehicles
• Sub‐station equipment
• Fire vehicles
• Fire‐fighting equipment including fire monitors
• Dust suppression equipment
• Reclaimers and stackers for bulk cargo
• Conveyors and connecting equipment
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 Ports and harbours conduct four important functions
• Administrative
– (ensuring that the legal, socio-political and economic interests of the state and
international maritime authorities are protected),
• development
– (ports are major promoters and instigators of a country’s or wider regional
economy),
• industrial
– (major industries process the goods imported or exported in a port), and
• commercial
– (ports are international trade junction points where various modes of transport
interchange; loading, discharging, transit of goods)

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 PORT STRUCTURES
• For smooth and efficient operations of the ports, various structures have to be provided,
and they include;
1. Breakwater
2. Wharf
3. Quay
4. Pier
5. Jetty
6. Fender
7. Bollard
8. Berth

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 BREAKWATERS
• These are protective barriers used to enclose harbours and to keep basin undisturbed from
the effect of sea waves and storms
• They are built with converging arms such that the intersection angle does not exceed 600
• Their design should put into consideration;
– The properties of the coastal currents
– The directions and force of prevailing winds
– The nature of the foundation
– The possible maximum height, force and intensity of the waves
– Measures (and use of materials) in the foundation that do not allow scouring
• Detrimental forces acting on breakwaters include;
– Hydrostatic forces:
• These forces reduce the apparent weight
– External forces
• These arise form the action of wind and waves
• Receding waves
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711S suction, which may cause erosion on the breakwater 6
 BREAKWATERS
• Detrimental forces acting on breakwaters include;
– Solvent action of the sea water
• This causes damage to (affects) the materials of construction
– Attack of marine creatures on the building material
• This causes damage to (affects) the materials of construction
• Breakwaters can be built in the following ways (types)
1. Rubble mound breakwaters
– These require large quantities of material (boulders/rubble)
– They are flexible and are not sensitive to uneven settlement
– They are porous and absorb greater part of the wave energy

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 BREAKWATERS
• Breakwaters can be built in the following ways (types)
2. Monolithic (or vertical wall) breakwaters
– These do not absorb wave energy but reflect it
– They are massive structures and can be made of concrete caissons, cellular sheet
piling, stacked block walls
– They are sensitive to uneven settlement
– Damage to these structures often leads to a complete destruction and loss of function
3. Composite breakwaters
– Made of both, rubble mound and a monolithic structure in one cross section
4. Floating breakwaters
– Can be made either rigid or flexible
– They are cheap and quick in fabrication and well suited for temporary protection
– Their wave dampening characteristics are relatively poor
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 WHARF AND QUAY
• These are platforms (or landing places) which allow ships to get close enough to the shore
• They are built along or at an angle to the shore to accommodate vessels and receive and
discharge cargo or passengers
• The type of construction differentiates the two structures;
– WHARF:
• This is an open structure built on piles or posts with bracings
– QUAY:
• This is a solid structure having protection walls (quay walls)
• The level of these platforms should be above the high water level
• Proper data have to be obtained to design these platforms so that vessels can also
operate during the low water level
• Quay walls are designed and built to protect the filling or embankment

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 WHARF AND QUAY
• Their design are affected by the following factors;
– Properties of the foundation
– Earth pressure at rear and pressure due to the water that enters its rear (of the wall)
– The effect of buoyancy for the submerged portion of the wall
– The self weight of the wall itself and dead load of the items stored on the platform
– The live load of vehicles moving at the rear on the platform
– Impact force from the vessels
• Quay walls are designed similar to retaining walls
• On the water side water pressure varies due to tidal variation

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 WHARF AND QUAY

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 PILED WHARF STRUCTURE

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 PILED WHARF STRUCTURE

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 WHARVES 11 AND 12 PROJECT ‐ PORT OF BRISBANE
• MAIN CONTRACTOR: SMITHBRIDGE AUSTRALIA PTY LTD
• DATE: 2010 TO 2012
• PICTURES TAKEN FROM: BRADY MARINE & CIVIL WEBSITE

PROJECT SUMMARY
The works are being self‐constructed and include the driving of a total of 686 steel
pipe piles with lengths up to 48.5m, topped by an insitu concrete deck. The contract also
includes the construction of a reinforced concrete abutment and relieving slab as well as
the installation of fenders, crane rails, bollards, services and other miscellaneous works.

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 PILED WHARF STRUCTURE

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 PILED WHARF STRUCTURE

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 PILED WHARF STRUCTURE

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 PILED WHARF STRUCTURE

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 PILED WHARF STRUCTURE

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 QUAY STRUCTURE

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 PIERS
• These are structures which are built perpendicular or oblique to the shore (i.e.
construction work that extends into the harbour)
• They are used where the sea is not deep and the natural harbour is not convenient for
ships to berth adjacent to the shore
• They are open structures constructed on piles, columns and braces thus space for the
ocean currents to flow without any obstruction
• They can also be built for public leisure walk along a waterfront at a resort

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 PIERS

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 PIERS

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 JETTIES
• These structures are built from the shore to the deep water
• They are used where the sea is shallow for a long distance or the harbor entrance is
affected by littoral drift
• Berths can be provided on one side or both sides and sometimes at the end as well
• As they are exposed to severe wave action, their structural design is similar to that
of breakwater
• However their design standards may be slightly relaxed to a certain extent they are
built normal to the wave front
• A good example of this type of a structure is the oil jetty

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 OIL JETTY

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 FENDERS
• Fenders are bumpers provided to absorb the kinetic energy of a berthing vessel against a
jetty, quay wall or another vessel
• They prevent damage to boats, vessels and berthing structures
• They are provided on the face of a berthing structure (jetty, wharf or quay wall)
• They are made using various flexible materials and shapes (of late rubber is the most
common material)

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 FENDERS

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 HEAVY DUTY FENDERS ‐ YOKOHAMA FENDERS

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 BOLLARD

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 BERTHS
• These are places where ships can safely lie alongside a quay, pier or dock in
order to carry out its operations

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 WATER TRANSPORTATION

DRY DOCKS

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 DRY DOCK
• A dry dock is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded (with water) to allow a ship,
boat etc. to be floated in (i.e. load to enter), then drained to allow that load to rest on a
dry platform
• This allows for construction, maintenance, and repair work on the underwater body of
the hull of ships (as well as boats and other watercraft) to be carried out
• The dry docking method and the way how the dry dock facility has been built and
operates differentiates them into four types
– Slipway docks
Mechanical Dry Dock Systems
– Shiplifts docks
– Floating docks
– Graving docks

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 SLIPWAY DRY DOC
• This is the oldest system and is mainly used for small craft like the fishing boats
• A slipway is made of
– An inclined platform running to the sea
– Rails laid on the platform which also run into the sea
– A cradle which runs on the wheels on the rails
• The hull is placed on cradle and pulled ashore on the inclined surface using winches

PRINCIPLE OF SLIPWAY OPERATIONS

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 SLIPWAY DRYDOCK

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 SLIPWAY DRYDOCK

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 SHIPLIFT DRY DOCK
• The shiplift system consists of a Syncrolift, finger piers, and the land ‐ based transfer
area
• The Syncrolift comprises electrical winches mounted on top of two the finger piers
• The winches are used to raise and lower a platform that has wood decking, which
supports rail docking carts positioned beneath the ship hull
• The Syncrolift operates like an elevator where when the platform is lowered down in
the water, the ship floats over the platform, and it is lifted out of the water (landing on
the docking carts)
• The docking carts are then used to roll the ship off of the Syncrolift onto the land ‐
based transfer area
• Once a ship is rolled onto the primary rail track, it can be moved sideways to another
set of rails, freeing the primary track and Syncrolift to transport additional vessels until
all the tracks are filled or emptied

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 SYNCROLIFT

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 SYNCROLIFT

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 Royal Malaysian Navy's submarine at a Navantia
shipyard prior to delivery

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 FLOATING DRY DOCK
• This is a type of pontoon dry dock with floodable buoyancy chambers
• It has a U ‐ shaped cross‐section
• Its walls give stability to the dry dock when its floor or deck is below the surface of the
water
• The pontoon is divided into number of tanks, which are filled with water to submerge it
for the ship to be floated in (docked)
• To float the pontoon, the water is pumped out using on board ballast pumps
• Floating docks are mobile such that they can be towed to other ports or sold to another
owner

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 FLOATING DRY DOCK

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 GRAVING OR EXCAVATED DRY DOCK
• This is built by excavating a portion of the sea side and provide a gate at the entrance (i.e.
where ships enter the dock)
• Pumps are used to empty the dock once the ship has entered and the gate closed
• The dock is normally slightly sloped towards the opening side

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 GRAVING OR EXCAVATED DRY DOCK

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 WATER TRANSPORTATION

NAVIGATIONAL AIDS ‐ SIGNALLING

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 NAVIGATIONAL AIDS
• Navigational aids in the form of signals are provided for three main reasons
– To avoid dangerous zones (e.g. hidden rocky outcrop)
– For ships to follow proper approaches
– For the captains to be able to locate ports
• The port signals ca be provided in two forms
– Fixed stations
• These are provided as permanent lighthouse structures
• They can be built in the hinterland close to the shore or in the sea on submerged outcrops
– Floating stations
• These are provided where it is difficult to get good and proper foundation for a permanent
structure
These can be provided in the form of
• Light vessels, or
• Buoys of standard shapes
• InGeometric
general, Design 2–buoys
GMD 711S are used to demarcate boundaries of approach channels in harbour 45
basins
 LIGHT HOUSE

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 LIGHT HOUSE

• Lighthouses and beacons are towers with bright

lights and fog horns located at important or
dangerous locations.
• They can be found on rocky cliffs or sandy shoals on
land, on wave-swept reefs in the sea, and at
entrances to harbors and bays.
• They serve to warn mariners of dangerous shallows
and perilous rocky coasts, and they help guide
vessels safely into and out of harbors.
• The messages of these long-trusted aids to
navigation are simple: either STAY AWAY, DANGER,
BEWARE! or COME THIS WAY!

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 BUOYS

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