Maryland Port Administration Dundalk

On a mission to stimulate the flow of waterborne commerce through its ports, the Maryland Port Administration deepened 2,400 lf of wharf at Dundalk Marine Terminal, the Port of Baltimore’s largest and most versatile general cargo facility. The design included a new wharf and both a standard sheetwall restrained by an inboard relieving platform and a masterpile and intermediate sheetwall restrained by soil anchors.

Soil anchors were designed at a 5.5-ft spacing for 200 kips and at least 150 ft long. The anchors were drilled through and below an existing timber pile foundation for an adjacent shed. The new wharf was planned outboard of the sheetwall.

For this project, Schnabel established and reviewed the field investigation and soil laboratory testing program. Typical soil cross sections and assigned soil strength parameters for various stratums were provided at various locations along the wharf. We provided sheetwall analysis for various systems and loading conditions.  Our analysis was performed using free earth, fixed earth, and equivalent beam methods, and Rowe’s reduction was applied.

Estimating the bulkhead deflections was also within the scope of our work. We provided preliminary soil anchor design and driven pile analysis for compressive, tensile, and lateral loads as well as evaluated the bending stresses in battered piles due to ground settlements. We prepared the soil anchor specification that allowed for contractor innovations and reviewed the drawings and specifications for the project. We also recommended a test anchor program to check the contractor’s design prior to beginning production anchor installation.

During construction, we reviewed the soil anchor and pile plan submittals from the contractor and will likely observe and review the results of the test anchor program and ground anchor tests.

^{Photo: © Bill McAllen}