Piers and wharves are key harbor facilities for ships. Piers are platforms built perpendicular to shore for ships to berth. They can be open or solid construction. Wharves are platforms parallel to shore where ships load/unload cargo. Wharves are generally built continuous with shore. Dolphins are clusters of piles used for ship mooring and transferring cargo between ships. Fenders on jetty faces cushion ship impacts and protect ships and structures. Harbor design considers ship sizes and cargo handling for efficient port operations.

1. CHAPTER-5
Harbour Facilities

2. Piers
• Piers are platform built perpendicular or oblique to the shore of a river
or a sea
• In sea, it is constructed where the sea is not deep and harbour is not
convenient for allowing the ships to berth adjacent to the shore
• On both sides of a pier berths are provided
• The length should be sufficient to accommodate the longest ship likely
to take its platform
• The width should be sufficient to satisfy its utility
• May be either open or solid construction

3. 1) Open pier:
• They are built over open water on exposed timber or concrete piles-
RCC or timber is used for decking purpose
• Open piers are used where minimum restriction of currents is
specified
• These piers are relatively more economical as narrow piers in deep
waters

4. 2) Solid pier:
• Solid piers are constructed of materials like earth or rock fill-these
materials are partly confined by some sort of bulk head
• These piers offer more resistance to impact and wave action
• In general solid piers are more stable and economical than open pier

5.  Additional points for pier:
• The water area between two adjacent piers is known as slip
• The width of the slip between piers should be at least three or four
times the beam of the largest ships to be accommodated

6. Cont…
• The live loads for pier design depends upon the nature of anticipated
cargo and shipping
• It is usual to provide no space for the purpose of storing cargo on the
pier
• Horizontal thrust on a pier head is taken as about 1% of the maximum
weight of the vessel to be berthed
• Water depth at pier should have a clearance of minimum 30 cm under
the keel of a fully loaded ship with reasonable provision for an
abnormally low tide

7. Wharves

8. Wharves
• These are platforms at which vessels take on and discharge
passengers and cargo
• In other words, they are docks that parallels the shore
• Located in such a way as to give sufficient depth of water for the ship
to float
• Generally built continuous with the shore but may not necessarily be
so
• Wharves built parallel with the shore are called quays and walls built
to protect the quays are known as quay walls
• Quay walls are built to retain and protect the embankment or filling

9. Cont…
• The type of vessel to be accommodated governs the length of wharf
and water depth required for berthing of ships
• The wharves design involves the following factors:
1) Provision for berthing of the ship,
2) Handling and storage of cargo
3) Terminal facilities for rail and truck transportation
• Wharves can broadly be classified as open or solid construction

10. Open type wharves
• Open construction wharves can be either high level decks or relieving
type platform
• High level decks have generally a solid deck slab
• Relieving type platform – main structural slab is below the finish deck
and the space between is filled to provide additional weight for
stability

11. Cont…
• Open type construction deck – made of timber or RCC or a
combination of concrete and steel or timber
• Precast or pre-stressed concrete slabs and beam type of decks are
economical
• Deck supported on timber pile but for deep water and soft grounds
pre-stressed concrete piles are best suited

12. Solid type wharves
• Composed of earth or rock fill partly confirmed by some sort of bulkhead
• Various types can be constructed
A. Rock filled steel sheet pile cell bulkhead wharf:
• Suitable - Where water depth < 15 m and bottom conditions are
suitable for support of gravity type of structures
• These cells are capped with a concrete slab and bulkhead wall above
water level
• Steel pile acts in tension to retain the fill inside
• Shell – circular or having circular ends and straight walls

13. B. Bulkhead supported by tie rods and anchor wall:
• Sheet piles may be supported by tie rods attached to an anchor wall or
anchor piles
• The rods should be located at a safe distance in back of the face of the
bulkhead
• Sheet piles should be driven deep enough to act as a cantilever
without additional support in shallow installations

14. C. Bulkhead wharf on closed bottom rock filled concrete caissons:
• Now become quite popular
• Caissons may have open wells and cutting edges to sink below the
dredged bottom to obtain affirm support
• In case of close bottom caissons the foundation should be prepared
consisting of a gravel or crushed stone bed or levelling course
• Heavy pre-cast concrete blocks ( 50 to 200 tonnes) – as gravity quay wall
• Rock fill is placed in back of the wall – to reduce lateral earth pressure

15. Dolphins
• Construction in the form of a cluster of closely spaced piles
• Piles are pulled together at the top and tied by a cable
• Marine structure for mooring vessel
• Generally used in combination with piers and wharves to
shorten the length of these structures

16. Cont…
• Used for tying up ships and also for transferring cargo from one
ship to another when moored along both of their sides
• Dolphins are mainly designed for resisting horizontal impact
force, wind force and water current forces from a vessel when
docking

17. Types of dolphins – as per position
1. Bresting dolphin:
• Having bollards or mooring posts to take the lines of ship and they
move a ship along the dock or hold it against the current
• Provided with fenders to absorb the impact of ship and to protect the
dolphin as well as ship from the damage
2. Mooring dolphin:
• These are additional dolphins and they are provided to hold a ship
against a broadside wind blowing in a direction away from the dock
• They are not designed for the impact of the ship
• So located that the mooring lines are nearly at right angles to the dock

18. Types of dolphin – as per nature
1) Flexible dolphin:
• In the form of cluster of piles tied with galvanized cable
• The piles are in odd numbers of 3, 5, 7, 9 etc.
• Centre pile of each cluster projects about one meter above the other
piles so as to provide means of attaching the mooring lines of a ship
• Piles are arranged with a slight batter and they are distributed
symmetrically
• Piles are used for mooring small vessels up to 50000 kg dead weight

19. Cont…
2) Rigid dolphins:
• Piles of the cluster are bolted to wooden cross members
located just above low water with wooden framing at the top
• Wooden platform type of rigid dolphins are used for larger
cargo ships and tankers

20. Fenders
• A fender in the form of a cushion is provided on a jetty face for
ships to come in contact
• Can be made of different materials in various forms
 Classification of fenders:
1) Timber piles fenders with spring
2) Rubber fender

21. Timber piles fenders with spring
• Driven at 3m to 5 m intervals on basin side of quay wall about
0.5 m away from wall
• At top these piles are connected to vertical face of dock or
quay wall through springs

22. Rubber fenders
• Any shaped rubber pads in layers are fixed on vertical face of dock or
quay wall
• These pads may get crushed because of heavy impact of ships
• In case of rubber tubes, steel chain is passing through central hole are
anchored and suspended on thick bolts and nuts on vertical face of quay
wall