The tires are tied with conveyor belt edge trimming h" to h" thick, 

 2" to 4" wide, with a wide range in quality. They are bolted with 5/16" 

 galvanized bolts, using corrugated washers. Conveyor belt edge trimming 

 was supplied by a tire and rubber company in Cincinnati. 



Our assembly took place in a heated shop where the tires were vacuumed, 

 filled with foam as required (partially or fully filled) and assembled into 

 modules before being dragged by their belts 1200 feet dovm the road to the 

 construction site. There they were arranged into the layout as designed, 

 bolted into the complete breakwater and dock attached to the top as needed. 



Once the dock was floating, we added additional anchors and 4" used 

 well casing spiles to hold it in place. There are now about 150 anchors and 

 50 spiles holding it in place. 



COSTS ; 



Project costs for the breakwater and docks are summarized in Table 1. 



PERFORMANCE : 



The Floating Tire Breakwater has now been in service six summers and 

 shows promise for six more. There have been no major problems. There have 

 been changes made to the docks over the years, but in general the Floating 

 Tire Breakwater has been very successful. 



We find that the effectiveness of the Floating Tire Breakwater is quite 

 adequate. It does not stop a sea entirely. We have observed a reduction 

 of a 30" to 36" incident wave, with a period of 2.5 to 3 seconds to a 6" to 

 10" transmitted wave with a very tolerable boat motion. I have watched the 

 boats many times lying peacefully and rocking gently while to the north and 

 south of the breakwater, waves were breaking with a roar on the beach. Having 

 been warned of this potential motion, we had designed the harbor to orient 

 the boat's bow and stern into the seas. At no time have the cleats jerked out 

 or lines broken, except from shear wind force. The consensus of our customers 

 is to choose this dock over our fixed structure at our adjacent site. 



EXPERIENCE AND PROBLEMS : 



We encountered some resistance from neighbors and residents who felt we 

 were in effect making a junk yard of old tires in their lake. We countered 

 this with photographs of existing Floating Tire Breakwaters that looked neat 

 and orderly. 



We have experienced some anchor dragging. The surge of the dock together 

 with the pull of 50 tons of boats does have an effect on the anchors. With 

 one anchor for every two modules of tires there is an anchor supposedly for 

 every nine linear feet of dock. In addition, the spiles locate the dock so 

 it doesn't drift far. 



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