c. Design. 



(1) Cincinnati's Ohio River Project. Through the years, the city of Cincinnati has 

 utilized the Ohio River as a vital natural resource to enhance commercial and recreational 

 growth. To meet present-day needs, the city began, in the late 1960's, to develop the 

 riverfront into a modern attractive recreational area to satisfy the ever-growing demands of 

 the general public. Within a few years, the area previously used for automobile parking, 

 commercial boat docking, and miscellaneous storage has grown into an area that now 

 consists of a new major sports arena, public landing area for commercial boat docking, 

 parking facilities, river promenade, and a riverfront park facUity under construction. 



Land transportation is adequate, but increased boating activities have influenced officials 

 to provide a small-craft docking facility to meet the need for water access to the area. 

 However, due to river characteristics of frequent flooding, heavy floating debris, high river 

 velocities, and lack of a protected basin, development of a marina in this area required some 

 unique planning and design considerations. A stringent set of operating procedures to 

 safeguard floating docks from damage by varying river conditions was also necessary. 



This case study is based on the present (1972) status of improvement. Final design is 

 complete and construction has started. The marina, when operational, will serve transient 

 boaters to the use-area rather than provide permanent slip rentals by lease agreement. The 

 marina design layout is shown in Figure 167. 



The Ohio River experiences large water level fluctuations annually. The high velocity 

 river current increases the hazard of floating debris, which requires special debris deflectors. 



Because pleasure boating is not recommended on the Ohio River under high water 

 conditions, the floating docks are designed only to operate during safe boating levels, 

 allowing for a water fluctuation of about 13 feet above the normal pool elevation of 455 

 feet. To reduce marina damage, facilities must be removed from the immediate area to a safe 

 location for storage during the winter and early spring seasons and during rises in summer 

 river levels higher than 13 feet above normal pool. 



Anchorages must withstand both lateral and longitudinal river and wind forces for 

 unusually heavy loads due to high currents and floating debris. Lateral anchorage and 

 restriction to upstream movements are accomplished by use of spud pipes, which stabihze 

 the floating docks. This system permits the docks to move vertically up and down along the 

 spud pipes maintaining uniform freeboard for boaters as water levels change. Site 

 characteristics and river depth are not satisfactory to securely hold the bottom of the spud 

 pipe. Therefore, a special spud-anchorage system (Fig. 168) will be constructed near the 

 river bottom. The anchor consists of a cluster of four battered piles encased with an 

 underwater poured-in-place concrete anchor unit. The spud pipe is seated into a pipe sleeve 

 located in the center of each concrete unit and extends through a sleeve in the floating 

 dock. 



273 



