Pilot Boat Pontoons for The Port of Felixstowe

More Pilot Boat Moorings!

Intermarine have successfully completed the installation of new heavy duty pontoons for use by the Pilot boats in the Port of Felixstowe. These floating pontoons are from Intermarine’s range of custom designed Heavy Duty Seawork pontoons for use in more exposed locations and by larger commercial vessels. This is the second installation of the new system with the first being the recently installed Pilot boat moorings for Associated British Ports at Gosport.

The steel frames utilise much heavier sections than standard pontoons and are shot blasted prior to galvanisation to increase the thickness of the protective coating. Additionally some of the more exposed surfaces are painted to further improve corrosion resistance and reduce maintenance requirements.

Our standard concrete floats already incorporate stainless steel reinforcement and thicker walls than traditional concrete floats, however, due to the exposed nature of this site we decided to further upgrade our floats by increasing the wall thickness from 30mm to 70mm and adding stainless steel fibres to the concrete to improve crack and abrasion resistance.

The combined system is much easier to maintain than the more traditional heavy duty ‘steel tank’ pontoon systems as there are no steel structures or painted surfaces below the waterline. This particular installation also utalises special pile guides combining traditional high density low friction wear surfaces with energy damping rubber inserts.

Energy Damping Pile Guide