(Contribution from the Bui'eau of Docks) 



DETERIORATION PROBLEilS IN I'I/lRINE STRUCTURES 



by J. T. Reside 



The follovring paper should be classed as that of an experienced mainte-- 

 nance engineer who looks over everything that comes along but who must 

 be very careful not to be led astray by some conscientious but probably 

 overenthiisiastic • salesman or scientific fellow who thinks he has the 

 last word in some process or gadget. Money for new construction and 

 maintenance comes hard these days. VJhen dealing with a plant like 

 BuDocks, the value of which aggregates several billion dollars it is 

 necessary to take the "doubting Thomas" attitude because of the damage 

 which can be done by a wrong move. This should not be carried to the 

 point, hov/ever, where ne\/ and helpful processes and materials would be 

 unduly ignored because sometimes they can be the means to big savings 

 in manpower and cost. Although by no means ignorant about new construc- 

 tion, the author does not propose in this talk to get into that field 

 too deeply because one of the Bureau's stalf v/ho follovirs is well quali- 

 fied aid prepared to get into certain phases of that and it is probably 

 best left to him^. Therefore, this paper will be given from the view- 

 point of a maintenance engineer who has perhaps something worth virhile 

 and interesting in the way of personal experience to offer, who is willing 

 also to listen to others, and who is looking for information. This line 

 of approach will rrive a quick picture of some of our fields of interest 

 and some idea of our typical problems and the remedial measures adopted 

 by BuDocks. The interest aid help of the delegates present is sought 

 in fields where satisfactory solutions to our problems have not yet been 

 obtained. 



Field of Interest 



The field of interest is extremely broad technically including as it 



does as examples, piers, wharves, graving and floating dry docks, marine 



railviays, floating cranes and floating power plants, pile drivers, 



dredges, buoy, anchor and chain moorings, etc. This field of interest 



is also world-wide in scope also and thus at is possible to give dnly a quick 



and brief picture of it in the time available here. It should, however, 



be enough to show what our problems are and where, if possible, members 



of this group may be of help. BuDocks is always viilling, of course, to 



exchange information with anyone with similar problems and does do quite 



a lot of this with other Bureaus and offices, commercial concerns and 



also foreign countries, particular!;;^ the British, 



By rarine structures is not necessarily meant only those structures 

 which are actually in the water but rather all structures, v;hatever 



"■See Section G 



D- 1 



