Belmar Municipal Marina

Lateral Load - Mooring Piles - Floating Docks

The Municipal Marina for the City of Belmar, New Jersey, is located on the Shark River, near the ocean inlet along the south Jersey shore. The marina which houses pleasure craft of all sizes and commercial head boats was recently rebuild, making a transition from fixed piers to concrete floating piers. The structural engineers for the project, Birdsall Engineering, are also located in Belmar and are one of the most respected marine-engineering firms in New Jersey. Birdsall selected Bellingham Marine concrete floating docks and Lancaster Composite's CP-40 piles to hold the docks in place.

The high lateral capacity and corrosion resistance of the Lancaster pile made it the perfect choice in the tidal basin, where five foot tides bring fresh ocean water into the River. This type of tidal movement coupled with high freeze thaw cycles make for a harsh climate in the winter months and temperatures in the mid- nineties are not unusual in the summer.

The Lancaster piles are not protected with any sort of rub strip connected to the pile. The floating docks are however fitted with UHMW pads attached to the floats to eliminate friction between the pile and the concrete deck. The skin friction coefficients of the two materials makes this set up preferable to the older style rubber roller assemblies.

The piles have been fabricated with a special roughened surface to establish maximum skin friction in the soil to help guard against heaving of the piles during prolonged freeze over of the tidal basin. The project has been in place for five years and all looks good.

Mooring Piles

Structural Pile, Pins Finger Pier in Position

Entire Floating Dock System Supported by CP-40 Piles