City South Dock Renovations and New Berthing Dolphins

Project Description:  This project addresses the urgent needs at the City South Dock and includes design, engineering, environmental review, and construction.  Specifically, this project will:

1. Renovate the City South Dock by

• replacing the used vehicle tires currently being used as fenders with modern, energy-absorbing fenders
• replacing and upgrading the broken, missing, and substandard bull rails, ladders, and cleats
• adding three, 80-ton bollards for large vessel mooring
• installing fire extinguishers and life rings

The City South Dock has an inadequate tire fender system, inadequate cleats, broken or missing bull rails, and damaged or missing ladders. Users report that the wave climate in the harbor is routinely very bad, and mooring lines regularly snap while at berth. The timber bull rails are severely deteriorated or missing altogether. The current fenders are used truck tires scavenged from the city dump that have been chained to the outside of the dock. All access ladders are smashed flat from vessel impacts. Mooring cleats are insufficient in number and spacing for mooring. Some of the cleats have been torn from the dock or bent. The cleats are also improperly sized and located for either fishing vessels or larger vessels. The smaller vessels’ lines tend to pull horizontally and need cleats closer together, while the larger vessels pull from a steeper angle and need cleats spaced further apart. Also missing on the south dock are mooring bollards to hold vessels, especially larger ones, in rough weather. Wave surges in the harbor basin combined with strong winds often result in vessels being slammed against mooring infrastructure. During winter, ice sometimes forms or washes inside the harbor. It is common for the ice to become wedged between a vessel and the dock. The presence of the ice and inadequate fenders preclude the vessel from being able to moor tightly against the dock. The result is that the vessel slams against the dock when driven by winds and wave surges. The deteriorated state of the City South Dock increases the risk of damage to vessels using the facility and increases the risk of injury to crew-members onboard vessels or on the dock.