The ports of Auckland are at the forefront in planning and providing high quality berthing facilities specifically for large yachts visiting the region, not only for the races, but also the Olympics and the millennium. In anticipation of an influx of large yachts for the America’s Cup Races, 19 Unifloat® berths provided by Bellingham Marine New Zealand were installed.
A new design concept was applied to the floats, wherein a unique underwater “skirt” is cast as part of the concrete module, providing additional depth to the system for better wave attenuation. The berths range in size from 25 meters to 50 meters and are part of the massive redevelopment generated in Viaduct Harbour by the America’s Cup Races being hosted by New Zealand, the winners of the last Cup races.
The preliminary Louis Vuitton Races to choose the challenger to New Zealand began in Auckland in November. The America’s Cup finals are scheduled to begin at the end of January 2000. Graham Ade, general manager of Bellingham Marine New Zealand, said, “Bellingham Marine and Unifloat were chosen for this project because of its reputation for quality and innovation, not only in New Zealand but around the world.”
From Bellingham Marine, P.O. Box 8, Bellingham, WA 98227. Website: www.bellingham-marine.com. Unifloat®, Unideck® and Unistack® are registered trademarks of Bellingham Marine.
As part of an ambitious attempt to restore life to a virtually “dead” body of water, Vanderbilt Partners Ltd. recently contracted Bellingham Marine Industries to install a 55-slip Unifloat dock system at Regatta Marina. In addition, Vanderbilt established a mitigation area of mangrove and aquatic vegetation planted shoreward of the marina to improve water quality and the overall ecosystem of the bay.
Before June of 2002, Vanderbilt lagoon in Naples, Florida, was virtually void of vegetation, fish and other marine life. Since completion of the marina, Bellingham has commissioned a professional, independent study of the biological impact of the floating concrete dock system on the marine environment. Besides the slips, Bellingham installed the electrical system with locker boxes, potable water and fire suppression systems, aluminum gangways and spun concrete guide piling.
Bellingham Marine designs, manufactures and installs Unifloat® floating dock systems, Unideck® fresh water systems and Unistack® dry storage buildings.
Contact Bellingham Marine, PO Box 8, Bellingham, WA 98227. www.bellingham-marine.com.
To accommodate the need for more slips, the existing docks at Birkenhead Point Marina have been replaced by a state-of-the-art, Unifloat concrete floating dock system from Bellingham Marine. The refit also includes a Unifloat caisson wave attenuator and utility services.
Located on the northern shore of the Parramatta River in Sydney, Australia, Birkenhead Point Retail Center and Marina were originally the site of the Dunlop tire factory. But as the markets, art center buildings and new high-rise apartments evolved into Sydney’s largest factory outlet community, the demand for additional slips increased. Now, the marina consists of 111 slips that handle boats from 32′ to 50′.
Unlike the outdated design that they replaced, the Unifloat docks and wave attenuator incorporate the latest in concrete and reinforcing technology, as well as a time-tested waler and through-rod connection system. Bellingham also installed a two-part landing/gangway arrangement to meet gradient requirements for wheelchair access.
Bellingham Marine designs, manufactures and installs Unifloat® floating dock systems, Unideck® fresh water systems and Unistack® dry storage buildings.
Contact Bellingham Marine, PO Box 8, Bellingham, WA 98227. www.bellingham-marine.com.
An ever growing number of marina owners and developers have discovered the benefits of using design/build contracting to build or rebuild their marinas. Just like conventional on-shore construction, this contracting method is fast becoming the choice amongst successful marina developers and here’s why. Experienced design/build marina companies have developed significant working relationships with a large number of engineers, architects and other consultants with extensive expertise in marina design and operations.
This group of consultants is able to provide expertise in all aspects of marina design and in a wide variety of geographical locations. The perfect team is composed of outside consultants rather than in-house staff because: It provides the contractor and the owner with third party generated designs and opinions, eliminating conflict of interest between what’s good for the contractor and what’s good for the owner. It provides independent professional liability insurance for both the owner and the contractor. It allows the design function to be a variable cost keeping the contractor’s pricing more competitive and appropriately assessing design costs to the respective project.
The third party design/build approach provides the greatest value to the marina owner. Once a project team is in place, the marina company coordinates all activities to insure a timely and efficient project design. This process results in substantial benefits and cost savings to customers due to the familiarity that exists between the marina company and its pool of consultants. Initial soft costs are lower due to the streamlined design process. The resulting project design is more efficient creating more economic value. Overall project completion time is reduced. Overall risk to the owner is reduced by single source responsibility. Lower project soft costs result from several factors.
The consultants used by the marina company are intimately familiar with their manufacturing and construction procedures, quality assurance programs and purchasing abilities. This allows them to get “straight to the meat” of the engineering issues without having to worry about the myriad of issues that would be required for a typical bid type design. The marina company can take a few pages of design information and turn it into a full set of shop drawings, which after review, can be stamped and used to obtain building permits. What could traditionally require an engineer hours of work to produce in specifications and many other details, are already established with the marina company.
Issues such as quality and types of materials, production tolerances, assembly methodologies, ASTM standards, testing requirements and other key design concerns are already established. A huge library of previously designed components from years of previous projects can be incorporated into projects with little effort, however, at the same time third party professionals are overseeing the project as a whole to insure all site specific issues requiring new design are taken into consideration. Lower project hard costs are realized due to the familiarity of the marina company’s manufacturing and construction capability by these consultants. Proprietary formwork, equipment and plant capabilities are all taken into account during the design process. Without this, many designs generate sizes and methodologies based on the result of calculations or other means, without knowledge of existing forms, jigs and other manufacturing efficiencies. This can result in the contractor having to put additional costs in the project that do not create value for the owner.
Overall project completion time is reduced because the required design time is shortened significantly by the streamlined engineering process described above. Additionally, time can be saved due to familiarity with key schedule issues such as long lead time components which can be determined early in the design phase for early approvals and ordering, sequencing engineering to match manufacturing and construction processes and the ability to phase the project so partial occupancy can be achieved, if possible. A reduction in risk to the owner also occurs because the marina company has sole source responsibility for the project.
Conflicts between design, manufacture and construction are minimized if not eliminated. The coordination of the multitude of disciplines and systems required for today’s sophisticated state of the art marina is removed from the owner’s area of responsibility. The competitiveness of design/build pricing can be verified if the marina company has a long history and is continually successful with design and construction projects. As with any major purchase, check references, visit project sites and talk to other MOAA members that have worked with the marina contractor.
Today, the design/build contracting approach is the method of choice for the vast majority of non-municipal customers as well as a growing number of municipal customers. January 3, 2003 Written by: Everett Babbitt, President Phillip A. Greenman, Executive Vice President Bellingham Marine Industries PO Box 8 Bellingham, WA 98227 Phone: 1-800-733-5679 Email: bmi@bellingham-marine.com Website: www.bellingham-marine.com
Bellingham Marine designs, manufactures and installs Unifloat floating dock systems, Unideck fresh water systems and Unistack dry storage buildings.
Contact Bellingham Marine, P.O. Box 8, Bellingham, WA 98227. www.bellingham-marine.com. Unifloat, Unideck and Unistack are registered trademarks of Bellingham Marine.
John Spragg, General Manager of Bellingham Marine Australia (BMA), announced a licensing agreement with Septech Emirates LLC, a well known concrete products manufacturer in the region. The license was signed in the Melbourne, Australia offices of BMA by John Spragg and David Heffernan, the Managing Director of Septech.
For many years, BMA has exported their Unifloat® concrete floating dock system to the region from their factory in Australia. The relationship with Septech allows BMA to provide better service to the region. BMA believes that Septech’s long history and expertise in the manufacture of concrete products will ensure that Bellingham product quality is maintained while providing responsive service to the burgeoning marina industry in the Middle East.
Under the license agreement, Septech will market, manufacture and install the Unifloat® system for Bellingham Marine.
Septech Emirates can be contacted via email at septech@emirates.net.ae