FIELD EXPERIENCES WITH FLOATING BREAKWATERS 

 IN THE EASTERN UNITED STATES 



by 

 Andrew V. Baird and Neil W. Ross 



I . INTRODUCTION 



In the past 10 years, the use of floating breakwaters (FBs) as temporary 

 coastal structures has become increasingly widespread in the United States 

 as a relatively inexpensive means for suppressing waves. However, as with 

 any new technology, there have been many failures and a substantial number 

 of imaginative, successful innovations. One of the chief problems contrib- 

 uting to the failure rate has been a lack of awareness by FB designers of 

 reliable, up-to-date technical information. Similarly, much of the circu- 

 lated technical literature has limited value because some of the authors of 

 these reports were unaware of current FB technology and performance studies. 



Recognizing the above problems, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers initi- 

 ated a research effort to gather all available data on existing FBs so that 

 a central source of design information would be available to the next gen- 

 eration of builders. One component of this overall effort was a survey of 

 field experiences with FBs in the Eastern United States (all states east of 

 the Mississippi River). Marine Resource Management, Inc. (MRM) was chosen 

 to conduct this work. MRM was aided by the technical supervision of the 

 coauthor, Neil Ross, a pioneer in the development and testing of the Goodyear 

 Floating Tire Breakwater (FTB) at the University of Rhode Island (URI). 



1 . Methodology . 



Working closely with the Coastal Engineering Research Center (CERC) , MRM 

 developed a four-stage plan to retrieve and present the desired information. 

 These stages included: 



(a) Developing an inventory of FBs installed, including those 

 no longer in operation and those still in prototype; 



(b) sending out detailed questionnaires to FB operators; 



(c) cross-checking and expanding operator-provided information 

 with other sources; and 



(d) analyzing the performance and problems experienced by each 

 project to learn why the difficulties arose and how they might be 

 prevented. 



In developing the site inventory, MRM relied extensively on files maintained 

 at URI by Mr. Ross and on Corps permits issued by the various eastern district 

 offices. MRM also received a list of contacts from Hydrotechnology, Ltd., a 

 Canadian firm which had done a similar, though broader study of North American 

 FBs . The New York Sea Grant Program and the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company 

 were also contacted for possible leads. 



