Load study of aged wharves to accommodate crane lift capacity.
The Navy and Its Six Wharves
A tale of the mile-long journey to assess 6 WWII-era concrete wharves.
School’s in session – studying wharf structures. The U.S. Navy needed to understand the ability of their aged wharves in Pearl Harbor to safely support modern cranes, forklifts, vehicles, and equipment. Reid Middleton provided structural engineering for the analyses and load rating studies for nearly one mile of NAVFAC’s concrete wharf structures in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In all, six concrete wharf structures built in the 1940s totaling approximately 325,000 SF of overwater area were examined. The study involved a pile and superstructure above water condition survey, berthing and mooring study of two wharves, and the load rating of all six wharves. Special load conditions for 18 mobile cranes and 9 forklifts with lifting capacities ranging from 15 to 220 tons and 2 to 27.5 tons, respectively, were also studied, and mobile crane operation procedures were provided.
