Modern Greenfield Terminal Development

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APM Terminals North America, Inc. has developed a private container terminal in Portsmouth, Virginia along the Elizabeth River, just west of the Craney Island Reach. Development of the greenfield site included dredging of 7.65 million cubic meters of river bottom, wharf, utilities, roadways, rail, container yard, and all support facilities. CH2M HILL was the lead design consultant for wharf, dredging, and yard development and provided technical support for the environmental permitting process. The first phase of the container berth was 990 meter long with a dredge depth of El - 15.25 meter National Geodetic Vertical Datum (NGVD). The wharf design included an open pile-supported structure designed for the next generation of container cranes. The wharf design includes support by high capacity concrete cylinder piles with precast concrete deck planks. In addition to the ship-to-shore gantry cranes, the structure design considered live loads from trucks, container handlers and loaded stacked containers. Fender and mooring loads were developed for future generation container vessels. Mooring loads were developed utilizing OPTIMOOR. The approximately 121 hectare container yard is the first significant RMG (rail mounted gantry) crane facility developed in the western hemisphere. It includes 30 semi-automated, high speed, rail mounted gantry cranes. The construction includes asphalt and concrete pavements; however, the design criteria involved much heavier loads than standard roadway or parking lot designs to meet the specific criteria of the heavy duty equipment required to manage the containers in the yard. Other design features include the following: (1) structural design of the refrigerated container racks; (2) site grading, including cut/fill analysis; (3) drainage system design, including design of trench drains, catch basins, conveyance piping and stormwater control structures; (4) potable water system design, including capacity for future buildings (5) sanitary sewer system design, including pump stations and capacity for future building connections; (6) fire water system, including an innovative use of stormwater storage as a source for fire water; and (7) electrical and communication systems. The terminal became operational in 2007. This paper addresses the use of innovative designs such as high capacity piles, rail mounted gantry design, and environmental sustainability. Copyright 2010 ASCE.