New concept for ocean trestle facility in high tide region

Abstract

The western coast in South Korea is characterized as high tide range up to 10m that restricts the duration of access to the loading facilities in the region. Especially the major harbor in Incheon has big disadvantage to invite the major shipping lines. It is critical condition if the ships need to wait to offload and load cargos to meet the required water depth losing time and chance to operate the ship. Also the shallow water depth in the region restricts the size of vessel for navigation and berthing. With more than 70% of trade logistics in South Korea has concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area where there is Incheon harbor as the main trade gate. The quantity of trade in Incheon harbor has been increased annually with the fastest-growing trade volume between Korea and China. The new concept in the paper can overcome these problems without massive civil work that causes the environmental impact filling the water like dredging. The breakthrough idea in the paper will suggest the solution for offloading facilities in the areas with high tide range securing 24 hour access. © 2012 Springer-Verlag GmbH.