Plains All American Pipeline, LP (PAALP) North Terminal is located in southwest Philadelphia on the western shore of the Schuylkill River. The facility includes storage tanks, pipelines, truck load-out and an 840-ft long wharf to accommodate vessels, which handle bulk liquid material including petroleum and chemical products. The wharf’s steel sheet pile bulkhead consists of anchored sheet pile walls, series of interconnected cells, arcs, pile-supported deck and relieving platform structures. Several deficiencies were encountered during underwater inspection including ruptured sheet pile cells, plastic deformation due to impacts, general scour and loss of fill. Lack of an engineered fender system had resulted in significant damage to the dock cellular bulkhead structure.
Our team was retained to perform an underwater inspection to evaluate the current condition of the bulkhead structure including cells, tied back sheeting and HP & pipe piles. Our marine engineers performed structural analysis of the bulkhead and designed the required rehabilitation of damaged sections of the dock bulkhead. In addition, we were tasked to design a new engineered fender system for the dock. Our scope of work included performing repair design underwater inspection, developing conceptual alternates for the rehabilitation, developing estimated construction cost of each option, performing final design, permitting and developing bid document. We developed an innovative repair for the ruptured cells & fender system for the uneven existing fender line at the dock.