St. Johns River Ferry Terminal Guide Wall

Description

The St. Johns River Ferry transports cars and passengers between Fort George Island and Mayport Village. Aggressive currents on the St. Johns River accompanied by strong winds can make berthing operations very challenging and subject the guidewalls to repeated, hard impacts. The existing steel and concrete guidewalls needed replaced due to damage sustained during impacts as well as deterioration from the marine environment.

The JTA selected C&D Construction and their subcontractor Freck Enterprises to do the replacement. The Engineer designed a system using FiberPILE™ FRP piling and SeaTimber HDPE wales to construct the new guidewalls. The FiberPILE-SeaTimber design was determined to be the best solution for absorbing the berthing energy generated from the 500-ton ferry.

The inherent flexibility and elastic behavior of the FiberPILE™ FRP piling and SeaTimber™ products has improved passenger safety during the frequent high-velocity impacts. The combination of large OD FRP pipe piles and the GFRP rebar reinforced plastic wales is the ideal solution for these demanding, traditionally high-maintenance guidewall structures.

Details

Pile diameters: 24” and 36” (wall thickness ranged from 1.0” to 1.5”)
Pile length: 60’ to 100’
No. of piles: 48ea (Phase 1) and 40ea (Phase 2)

Wale Size: 12” x 12” reinforced w/8ea-1.625” dia GFRP Rebar
Wale Lengths: Ranged from 40’ to 115’
Total Wale Length: Over 5000 LF
Wale Color: Yellow/Black staggered every other row for better visibility