Print Email Facebook Twitter The Conceptual Design of the Bolivar Roads Navigational Surge Barrier Title The Conceptual Design of the Bolivar Roads Navigational Surge Barrier Author Karimi, I. Contributor Sanders, F.M. (mentor) Jonkman, S.N. (mentor) Van der Toorn, A. (mentor) Willems, A. (mentor) Van Spengen, J.A. (mentor) Faculty Civil Engineering and Geosciences Department Hydraulic Engineering Date 2014-06-01 Abstract Hurricane Ike made landfall on 13th of September 2008 on the Galveston Island in the Texas area. This hurricane is the third-costliest hurricane that ever has made landfall in the United States and the costliest hurricane in the history of the Texas. The possible future disasters should be prevented by using the best practices and existing technologies used in the Netherlands and New Orleans to protect the region. The Ike Dike is a coastal barrier which would protect the Houston/Galveston region from the possible future hurricane storm surges. If we consider the Ike Dike as system level 1, in system level 2 the Ike Dike will consist of a system of levees, a coastal barrier and a storm surge barrier in the Bolivar Roads Pass. This storm surge barrier can be further divided to the environmental barrier and the navigational barrier in system level 3. The focus of this report is the conceptual design of the navigational storm surge barrier of the Bolivar Roads Pass as an important part of the Ike Dike concept. In this report, firstly the Ike Dike is defined as a system with special requirements. The focus is then on the navigational barrier as part of this system and particularly the moveable gate. The requirements are defined for this barrier and an integral design method is chosen as the design approach. This integral design includes different steps. In the first design step, different options for the barrier gate are investigated and evaluated using the Multi Criteria Analysis on the basis of boundary conditions and program of requirements. The floating barge gate is chosen as the best option for the moveable gate of the navigational barrier. The conceptual design of the barrier is the second design step which defines the system of the barrier and the operational phases. Concrete is chosen as the construction material and the barrier is designed for the full surge retaining height (MSL+5.5 m). In design step 3, the barge gate is geometrically designed as a caisson structure. A gate with the dimensions of 230 m* 36 m* 22.5 m is the final design result with the weight of 70,779 tons. The complementary structures including bed protection, berthing system and articulation system are depicted and designed in the design step 4. Design evaluations and reflections and risk analysis in design step 5 control the design and provide an overview of the design results and important design parameters. As part of the design iterations, in design step 6, some design revisions are realized including the choice of material (concrete or steel), retaining height selection, design with prestressed concrete and initial hydrodynamic analysis of the structure. Comparison of the steel barge gate with the concrete barge gate shows that the steel barge gate has less weight while it is more expensive. Furthermore, the design with the prestressed concrete reduces the weight of the structure to 63,724 tons while increases the construction costs of the barge gate. The preliminary design and overview of the supporting structures including abutments and foundations is the next part of the report. The abutments are designed as the piers in prestressed concrete with the dimensions of 24 m* 7 m* 5 m each. Due to the weak subsoil of the project site, deep foundations in the type of steel tubular piles filled with concrete are proposed as the suitable foundation type for the structure. The project management aspects such as construction methods, maintenance aspects and cost calculations are the other discussed issues. The barge gate can be constructed in the dry dock and be transported to the site afloat. It is expected that the navigational barrier with the concrete barge gate costs 303 million USD while with the steel gate costs 538 million USD. The total cost of the barrier of the Bolivar Roads Pass (including the environmental barrier and the navigational barrier) is estimated in the range of 2.3 billion USD to 4 billion USD. The choice of the concrete barge gate for the navigational barrier is expected to be an economical and realizable solution for the Bolivar Roads Pass storm surge barrier. However, there are some issues which should be investigated more. The articulation system (swing point) of the barge gate is an important aspect of the project which needs special attention. The barge gate in this size has not been realized yet and the operational phases should be investigated more using hydrodynamic analysis or by using the laboratory tests. The construction of the barrier and installations require offshore works which may in reality increase the costs compared to what is calculated in this research project. The optimizations should be done to reach the best configuration for the barge gate in the future. Subject navigational barrierdesignBolivar roadsbarrierstorm surge To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:efab70a8-f2be-41da-9caa-e2eb88221395 Part of collection Student theses Document type master thesis Rights (c) 2014 Karimi, I. Files PDF Ike_Dike_Navigational_Bar ... -2014_.pdf 7.28 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:efab70a8-f2be-41da-9caa-e2eb88221395/datastream/OBJ/view