Container Berth Bridges over Sewer Tunnel

A nearly 900-ft-long (274.3-m-long) extension to Global Container Terminal's wharf along the 50-ft-draft (15.2-m-draft) Port Jersey Channel located in Bayonne, New Jersey, was designed to accommodate Suez Max Class vessels having a maximum draft of 47.5 ft (14.5 m). The major challenge of the project was spanning the wharf extension over an existing 15-ft (4.6-m) diameter sanitary sewer effluent outfall tunnel which runs at an acute angle to the alignment of the wharf extension. Piling or other foundation elements were prohibited from being installed within 15 ft (4.6 m) of the tunnel corridor. In order to accommodate this restriction, a 190-ft-long (58-m-long) by 30-ft-deep (9-m-deep), 500-ton (454-tonne) steel truss was designed to span over the outfall tunnel and support the waterside rail of the ship-to-shore cranes. In addition, at locations inboard of the waterside crane rail and, in particular, at the landside crane rail, steel box girders were designed to span over the outfall tunnel.