Vessel Collision for Pier Impact Loads: Pattullo Bridge
Vessel Collision for Pier Impact Loads: Pattullo Bridge
Vessel Collision for Pier Impact Loads: Pattullo Bridge
To facilitate pier design and vessel collision forces for pier impact loads the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI) retained TyPlan to review and determine the dead weight tonnage (DWT) of vessels potentially transiting the Pattullo Bridge.
TyPlan reviewed vessel data from
- Clarkson’s World Fleet Register; and,
- Pacific Pilotage Authority (PPA) ship call data.
The data was filtered to include only vessels that are the same size or smaller than the design vessel for the main navigation channel at Pattullo Bridge as described above (270m LOA, 32.3m beam).
Clarkson’s World Fleet Register categorized all the registered vessels by varying dead weight tonnage in 20,000 DWT increments from 0 to 80,000 DWT. It was deemed unlikely that the Fraser River would accommodate vessels over 80,000 DWT.
The analysis of the PPA recorded ship call data for the Fraser River, identified the percent of vessels currently calling the Fraser River that can physically fit in the Pattullo Bridge navigation channel as designed. Results from the analysis indicated VFPA should be looking for a design DWT between 38,500 and 60,000.
Collectively vessel data from the Clarkson’s World Fleet Register and the PPA ship call data, there is defensible reason to consider 60,000 DWT for the pier load design. At 60,000 DWT, 77% of Handymax and 72% of Supramax as well as 99% of Intermediate container vessels could be accommodated. In short, 60,000 DWT provides a significant more percent of both the Worldwide Fleet with dimensions that fit the Pattullo navigation envelopes as well as the fleet that currently calls the Fraser River.