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Ports, Harbors, & Navigation

Many waterways, ports, and harbors often face common challenges — sedimentation of waterway entrances, failing infrastructure, wave agitation inside mooring basins, degradation of water quality, and navigation safety with respect to water conditions and other vessels. Taylor Engineering has a long history of providing port and harbor facility managers with a range of services to address these challenges. Services include port, harbor, and marina design; analysis and evaluation of structural elements of existing facilities; and design documents development in accord with military standards and Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC) requirements, and Navy Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers activities. Please visit our project gallery to view a variety of our ports, harbors, and navigation projects. A few project examples include

Beach inlet management

San Juan Bahia Urbana Waterfront Development

Taylor Engineering serves as a member on a team of design and land development professionals assembled to tackle a comprehensive redevelopment program for an aging port facility. Past and present uses include Navy and Army facilities, port terminals, and small craft marinas and recreation amenities.The project team plans to revitalize, retrofit, or replace aging and failing port infrastructure to support new mixed-use development including cruise passenger tourist attractions and commercial, residential, and civic developments. Marine structure services include evaluation of bulkheads, docks, and piers and design for new bulkheads, piers, mooring facilities, seaplane berth, pedestrian bridge, dredging, and other waterfront facilities.

Leading-edge Solutions
  • Overcame design challenges including poor geotechnical conditions and seismic design requirements for bulkhead structures
  • Met schedule requirements that dictated rapid reconnaissance, engineering design, and construction
  • Adapted to changing market conditions by altering design features while minimizing impacts to the existing structural design or construction schedules
  • Provided unique engineering experience to design the transitions and links between the waterfront and the upland development
Beach inlet management

Jacksonville Harbor Deepening Feasibility

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) wishes to determine the feasibility of deepening the Jacksonville Harbor Navigation Project from its current 40-foot project depth to depths up to 50 feet. The numerical modeling effort provides the means to assess the direct impacts of channel modifications on river salinity and the cumulative impacts of other projects, including the U.S. Navy Mayport Deepening Project and other navigational improvements, sea level rise, flooding, and freshwater withdrawals from the St. Johns River.

Leading-edge Solutions
  • Refined and applied existing St. Johns River Water Management District EFDC model to save client time and money
  • Expanded (and re-calibrated) the EFDC model to include the area of interest
  • Prepared study findings in appropriate format for inclusion in USACE General Reevaluation Report
Beach inlet management

Gulf Intracoastal Waterway Capacity Study

As a subcontractor, Taylor Engineering completed a Waterway Capacity Study for the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) in Alabama between Mobile Bay and Wolf Bay, a 10-mile reach, as part of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The Waterway Capacity Study component of the EIS focused on the existing and future expected personal watercraft traffic, and existing and future levels of commercial traffic including barges. Several private developers proposed to build many new marinas, additions that would further constrict a crowded waterway and create potential problems for existing commercial boat traffic and other recreational boaters. Taylor Engineering assessed the needs of the commercial boaters and other site-specific conditions to determine the maximum, safe capacity of the waterway.

Leading-edge Solutions
  • Worked with USACE, local governments, law enforcement, commercial boating industry, and recreational users to develop and apply a defendable analytical approach
  • Analyzed boat traffic surveys taken on peak holiday weekends near restaurants and boat ramps, calculated navigation safety criteria including steerage and stoppage, and evaluated impacts of recreational boating on commercial navigation, socio-economics, aesthetics, and the environment
  • Produced a study accepted by all commenting agencies and stakeholders