Storage facilities

1.APRON

▸ Open floor space left immediately in front of a berth (Berth is the term used in ports and harbors for a designated location where a vessel may be moored, usually for the purposes of loading and unloading.)

▸ Required for loading and unloading of cargo from vessels.

▸ Utilized for the installation of railway tracks, road trucks, cranes etc for efficient discharge.

▸ Width of apron should be such that travel time is minimum for cargo from ship to transit shed.

Width of apron = 10 m for port with light traffic

= 25 m for port with heavy traffic

2.TRANSIT SHEDS

▸ Sheds of one or two storeys height, floor area being devoted to the handling and distribution of incoming and outgoing cargo.

▸ Storage of cargo for a short time.

▸ Mixed cargo are sorted to be dispatched to different people.

REQUIREMENTS OF TRANSIT SHEDS

▸ Should be adjacent to quay.

▸ Should have sufficient capacity to store incoming & outgoing cargo.

▸ Connected by road and rail for quick transportation of cargo.

▸ Should have adequate equipments like portable cranes.

▸ Doors should be provided for ready and rapid opening and closing.

▸ Construction should be light and fire resisting.

▸ Should have ample lighting by skylight during day time & artificial lights for night.

▸ Should have modern fire fighting equipments (alarm, sprinklers etc)

▸ Clear height of 6 to 7m.

3.WAREHOUSES

▸Permanent structures provided on shore or directly behind transit sheds for goods to be stored for longer periods of definite or indefinite duration.

▸ Also called storage go downs

▸ Built of R.C.C. with many floors & are fire resistant.

▸ Buildings, devoted to special purposes, such as grain storage, meat storage etc.

▸ Special types of construction and equipment for each type of material will be required.

▸ Refrigeration plants are present.

▸Light cranes are placed at intermediate floor levels so as to reach top & bottom floors.

▸ Ware houses should have easy & ready access & facilities must be provided for transfer & removal of goods.

▸ For this purpose, suitable siding & rows should be made around the sheds

Guiding facilities

1.NAVIGATIONAL AIDS

For safe, efficient, economic and comfortable travel of vessels in rivers, harbours, ocean etc navigation aids are necessary.

Purposes:

• To avoid dangerous zones.

• To follow proper harbour approaches.

• To locate ports during night and bad weather conditions.

1) Fixed type: Light stations when they are built on land.

Eg: Light house.

2) Floating type: When there are difficulties in establishing proper foundations.

Eg: Bouys, Lightship

2.LIGHT HOUSES

• Lofty structure built of masonry or reinforced concrete in the shape of a tall tower on a high pedestal.

• The tower is divided into convenient number of floors, the topmost floor containing powerful lighting equipment and its operating machinery.

• The lower floors are used, as stores and living rooms necessary for the maintenance and working of the light station.

• Lighthouses may be located on shore or on islands away from the mainland as in the case of warning light stations.

• In the former case, the lighthouse may be easily connected with the nearest village or township by proper communications, while in the later situation it is located far habited area.

• In either case as a matter of convenience and urgency, all the requirement for the efficient and unfailing maintenance and working of the lighthouse, like stores and staff quarters are provided in the lighthouse shaft.

• Lights are characterized as :-

  a) fixed

  b) flashing

• The light should be identified and its distance ascertained, for the mariner to locate his position

• The lights are made fixed or flashing for easy identification by the navigator.
• The important factors deciding the range of visibility are:-

1.Height of the tower above the sea level.

2.Intensity or power of the light.

LIGHTHOUSE CONSTRUCTION

Type of foundation depend on characteristics of oil of that area.

▸ On good rock or hard soil - thick bed of concrete

▸ On marshy locations - piles are used

▸ Stone or concrete blocks used in construction of basement, kept horizontally & vertically to secure block together. Over this superstructure of masonry or RCC is provided.

▸ Tower is divided into number of floors & light is housed at the summit in a glazed room.

▸ Floors are accessible by a flight of winding stairs from bottom to top.

▸ Just below lantern room is the service room & other rooms lower down used for oil, stores, water storage etc.

3.SIGNALS

The approach channel of a modern port should be clearly defined or demarcated by the provision of suitable signals.

Thus, signals will be required at the following places:

• Light ships have to be provided at important changes in the direction of the route of ships.

• Lighted beacons are to be fixed on river banks

• Buoys are required at entrance channels to ports

Requirements of a signal

• It should be conspicuously visible, from a long distance.

• It should not vary in character and should be positively recognizable.

• It should be simple for identification.

Types of Signals

• Light Signals

  • Light Ships
  • Beacons
  • Buoys

• Fog Signals

• Audible Signals

4.LIGHT SHIPS

▸ Small ships displacing about 500 KN are used for this purpose.

▸ The lantern is carried on an open steel tower approximately 9 m to 12 m above the water level and erected amidships.

▸ The hulls of light ships are built of steel and they are generally painted with red colour. The name of the station is painted in white colours on both sides of light ship.

▸ The superstructures are also provided with white colours.

▸ The storm warning signals are also installed on the light ships.

▸When the light ships are being overhauled, red colour relief light ships with the word 'relief' on the sides are used.

▸ The light apparatus consists of four pairs of mirror reflectors placed around the light and made to revolve at a suitable speed emitting, a predetermined number of flashes.

▸ The ship is with service personnel and is securely anchored or moored.

▸ Light ships are more stable and the lights in them more steady which is an important factor for a mariner.

5. BEACONS

• Any prominent object, naturally or artificially constructed, easily identifiable & capable of being used as means to indicate & guide in navigation.

• Beacons could be built in the form of an open tapering frame work.

• It has a wide stable base and gradually narrowed top, terminating in a distinctive figure

• The distinctive figure is like a triangle or circle, which is suitably painted so as to cause prominence.

• Used for indicating direction changes in navigation.

6.BUOYS

▸Buoys are floating structures of small size employed for demarcation like entrances, approach channel

▸ They are moored to sinkers, or heavy anchors, with the help of heavy chains, whose length are two to three times the depth of water and which are 70 to 90 mm in diameter.

▸ They are useful in indicating approach channel widths, two rows of buoys being used one along each boundary.

▸These buoys are denominated 'Star board-hand' or 'port-hand' buoys according to their positions being to the left or right of the navigator respectively as he approaches the harbour.

• Buoys are of different designs and patterns. They are designed not only to support their own weight, but also the weight of cables or chains by which they are moored.

• The surface of buoy structure near water line should be protected by the provision of stout wooden fendering so that it is not seriously damaged in case of an impact.

• Thus, buoys are floating signals and they are usually prepared of steel and iron plates of minimum thickness 6 mm.

• Buoys are hollow structures and they are constructed in two watertight sections so that in case one of them is leaky, at least the other one may prevent it from sinking.

• The maximum distance between consecutive buoys is about 1600 m in estuaries and in narrow channels, it is about 150 m to 300 m.

• The diameter of a buoy varies from 1.80 m to 3 m. . • In tidal places, the depth of water is liable to fluctuation and hence, in such cases, the buoys are not steady and they do not give correct guidance regarding alignment.

• The presence of buoys also indicates the proximity of places with shallow depth of water.

• Buoys are also classified according to their size, shape, colour, weight, purpose, etc.

• TYPES - buoyage system, mooring buoys and wreck buoys