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U.S. NAVY DEVELOPS PORTABLE PIER SYSTEM

The U.S. Navy has successfully demonstrated a portable pier system for handling containers from barges to trucks which might go far beyond its original conception of extending naval and army capabilities for handling containerized cargoes on undeveloped beachfronts, and prove beneficial to some of the developing nations. The system was developed by the Civil Engineering Laboratory (CEL) Naval Construction Battalion Center, Port Hueneme, Calif. The month-long operations last November-December involved the handling of 20-foot containers at Coronado, Calif. The 630-foot elevated causeway consisted of nine sections of standard NL pontoons, each 21' x 90'. The pierhead or loading platform was 180' long. A fast hydraulic system lifted the pontoons to a predetermined height. Pilings 20 inches in diameter and up to 60 feet long were driven 15 feet into the ocean bottom. A combination of four jacks lifted and positioned each 90-foot section. Normal installation time is projected to be two to three hours per section. During the Coronado tests, a 100-ton capacity crane weighing 150,000 pounds was used to lift the containers. To take the weight of this crane, the pier head was reinforced. A transfer rate of up to 20 boxes an hour was reported. Based on the results of the Coronado operations, CEL plans only minor modifications to the system before a joint Navy-Army demonstration of the total system, which is scheduled for the summer of 1977.

  • Corporate Authors:

    Transportation Development Agency Centre

    800 rene-Leveque Boulevard West, Suite 600
    Montreal, Quebec H3B 1X9,   Canada 
  • Publication Date: 1976

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Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00142645
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: Transportation Development Agency Centre
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Dec 15 1976 12:00AM