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Port & Intermodal Facilities

Abatech has extensive experience in the testing and design of pavements for ports and intermodal facilities. Our staff have been involved with various large scale projects such as the Port of Felixstow in Suffolk, England (which at that time was the largest block paving project used for a port application) and the pavements in the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Elizabeth Terminal and others), since the late 1980s. Since 1997 when Abatech was formed the company has been continually involved with port pavements and intermodal facilities.

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Abatech has customized software that specifically considers the interaction of soil-structure problems, including FE analysis, with very heavy loads.  Soils can be modeled as stress dependent or cross anisotropic. This helps to allows a full understanding of heavy loads on ports and industrial pavements. Soil models also include different failure criteria based upon various stress states.

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Falling Weight Deflectometer testing in ports provides valuable information of structural properties of pavement layers.

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Recording pavement temperatures during FWD testing.

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Heavy loads are imposed on these pavement structures.

Typical Projects

Port of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (1999)

Design of modified asphalt pavement for heavy loading on behalf of supplier of modified asphalt materials with a value engineering proposal for use of novel materials.

South Intermodal Yard, Port of Tacoma, Washington (1999)

Development of value engineering proposal for alternate pavements at the Port of Miami, Florida.

Port of Miami, Florida (1999)

Development of value engineering proposal for alternate pavements at the Port of Miami, Florida.

Chalmette Terminal - Kaiser Site, Port of New Orleans, Louisiana (1999)

Assistance to modified asphalt producer with developing pavement designs for the Port of New Orleans.

Port of Tacoma, Washington (2000)

A detailed pavement design for the South Intermodal Yard, Port of Tacoma, WA. The pavement at this facility is to undergo a major rehabilitation due to premature failure of the existing concrete pavement structure. Detailed structural design was carried out with modified bituminous materials. The pavement construction for these areas utilized Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) which is 17-inches thick adjacent to the rail tracks and 12-inches thick for the central roadway. The RCC is placed upon a 4-inch layer of compacted subgrade for all locations.

CSX Intermodal Facility, North Bergen, New Jersey (June 2002)

Pavement Evaluation and Design Review Bergen Intermodal Facility which involved the evaluation and design of pavements for intermodal facility using FWD and Dynamic Cone Penetrometer testing which involved the rehabilitation of network of existing pavements in an intermodal (road-rail) facility in northern New Jersey. The pavement evaluation considered of Falling Weight Deflectometer, Dynamic Cone Penetrometer, Coring and Soil Borings. Laboratory work on the soils and other materials included full classification to a depth of approximately 30-feet in order that weak underlying soils could be evaluated. The pavement design was conducted using analytical design methods (KENLAYER). Stiffness information for materials was developed using material and climatic effects models. Pavement design needed special consideration due to the heavy loads being applied to the pavement structure by the unloading/loading equipment at the facility.

Port of Baltimore (2001 to 2009)

Evaluation of pavements at Dundalk Terminal for long-term pavement management program. Project included visual survey, pavement management database, FWD testing, stress analysis. The entire set of data and performance was linked into a GIS representation of the port pavement.

Terminal 18, Harbor Island, Seattle (2003)

Design of modified asphalt pavement for heavy loading on behalf of supplier of modified asphalt materials with a value engineering proposal for use of novel materials. This site was constructed and used a soil staging area for port degrading operation for a two year period with installation of rail tracks for hauling contaminated materials to a safe disposal facility.

Maersk Terminal, Port Elizabeth, New Jersey (2003 to 2004)

Assessment of port pavements with Falling Weight Deflectometer over a one year period to study the variation of soil stiffness and pavement properties with the season to further develop the pavement design methods for the PANYNJ.

Burlington Northern SantaFe Railroad Intermodal Yard, Stockton (1999)

California Design of pavement structure for intermodal facility in California involving assessment of PCC, lime treated soil and TLA modified asphalts. In particular the use of thick "sandwich" pavement construction was investigated for this project.

Pierce County Terminal, Port of Tacoma (2007)

Design advice to Wilder Construction company and presentation to port regarding different design build options for pavement structures to improve the life cycle cost of poorly performing pavements.

Rybovich Yacht Services, West Palm Beach, Florida (2007 to 2008)

Assessment of asphalt concrete pavement in port facility being used with large boat lifts (luxury yachts) with loads up to 300,000 lbs in West Palm Beach, Florida. Project includes Finite Element analysis considering plastic failure in both soil structure and asphalt materials in hot climatic conditions and at slow speeds of loading. Analysis also performed in accordance with Asphalt Institute method for design of port pavements with heavy loads.

Area 1800, Port of Baltimore (2007 to 2009)

Construction supervision of pavements for Area 1800 of Dundalk Marine Terminal reporting to CH2MHill and preparation of data in suitable format to support warranty obligations of contractor.

Port of Baltimore, Area 1800, Dundalk Terminal (March 2009)

Visual survey of area 1800 with three trial pavement areas consisting of one with articulating concrete blocks, and two polymer modified asphalt sections.

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