Seagirt Marine Terminal Berth 3 Wharf Improvements
Baltimore, MD
| Location: | Baltimore, MD |
| Owner: | Ports America Chesapeake |
| Construction Company: | Fay, S&B USA Construction |
| Project Status: | Completed in August 2022 |
Completion of the Seagirt Marine Terminal Berth 3 Wharf Improvements project gave the Maryland Port Administration a second berth at the Port of Baltimore with the capability of docking larger post-panamax cargo ships. Fay’s work covered extensive demolition and structural strengthening reconstruction of the longitudinal and transverse pile cap beams on both the top side and the waterside for the complete length of the berth. Along with the structural upgrades, the work scope included installation of a 1600-ft long king pile and sheeting toe wall to retain the original mudline, followed by dredging the berth to accommodate the larger vessels’ draft.
Project Highlights
- Demolished major portions of the marginal wharf
- Completed full-depth strengthening of 1,600 ft of longitudinal pile cap beam and all transverse cap beams
- Drilled and epoxied 10,000 holes for rebar dowel placement
- Dredged the complete berth pocket access channel to depth of minus 52-ft below water
- Installed 1,600-ft of new king pile and sheeting wall 40 ft under water using specially designed and fabricated hammer equipment
- On-site fabrication of sheet pile fit-up closures
- Removed/installed 25 new double-coned fenders
- Installed six new 200-ton mooring bollards
- Rebuilt the marginal wharf with select fill and surfaced with full-depth fiber-reinforced paving
Expanding a Key East Coast Port Terminal for Ultra-Large Container Vessels
The Seagirt Marine Terminal originally opened in 1990 and received improvements over the years. The terminal is owned by the Maryland Ports Administration and operated under a public-private partnership by Ports America Chesapeake, which was making infrastructure investments in the terminal to support expected growth. Baltimore is one of only two East Coast ports able to accommodate post-panamax cargo ships.Challenge
To support expected long-term growth projections for container volumes, the port operator needed to make upgrades to the existing berth at Seagirt Marine Terminal to enable the berth to dock and unload two ultra-large post-panamax ships simultaneously. This required three key upgrade elements: 1) strengthening all of the concrete cap beams; 2) installing a new sheet pile bulkhead; and, 3) dredging the berth to handle the deeper-draft vessels and driving new sheeting and piling in front of the wharf’s face.Solutions
The team reconstructed berth #3 by enlarging and making extensive upgrades to the wharf’s structural concrete components, including cap beams, bulkheads and deck slabs—Fay drilled 10,000 holes in concrete to place rebar dowels before pouring concrete.Fay also installed new subaqueous sheet pile cutoff walls to retain the berth’s original bottom against the pile cutoff wall and under the existing wharf. To meet the challenge of driving sheet piles 40 ft under water, Fay used specially designed and fabricated hammer equipment, then employed divers to cut the piles. After the piling was in place, Fay dredged the berth area by an additional 12 ft to accommodate the deeper-draft vessels.
Construction
Key work included a complete demolition of the existing wharf cap and pavement and fill removal. Then the team upgraded structural concrete components, both topside and underwater, to strengthen them to withstand the loading of the new cranes that service the larger cargo vessels. Fay rebuilt the wharf fill and resurfaced it with full-depth fiber-reinforced paving.To reconstruct the wharf’s face, Fay installed 1,600 ft of new king pile and subaqueous sheet on the face to retain the original bottom against and under the existing marginal wharf. Then workers dredged the berth pocket access channel to a new depth of 52 ft.
Finally, the team removed and replaced the wharf’s double-coned fenders and installed six new 200-ton mooring bollards to meet the mooring needs of the larger ships.