Cummins Cederberg was contracted by FINCANTIERI Marine Systems N.A. (Fincantieri), part of one of the world’s largest shipbuilding groups, to provide marine engineering services for the redevelopment of a shipyard located in downtown Jacksonville, FL. The Commodore Point project site is located along the north shoreline of the St. John’s River, adjacent to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) federal channel between Harts Bridge and Mathews Bridge. Cummins Cederberg was tasked with leading the design, permit support and construction oversight for nearly 2,000 linear feet of bulkhead, dredging, mooring dolphins to accommodate a +/- 500 ft-long dry dock facility, as well as berthing fenders and mooring bollards.

The first phase of the project entailed marine structural design and construction administration of the Type 3 bulkhead. The Type 3 bulkhead was designed to accommodate a design dredge depth of -53 ft NAVD, consisting of approximately 350 linear feet of pipe pile bulkhead supported by an upland anchor wall with battered steel H-piles, a concrete cap, utility trench, and an upland relieving platform to support the dry dock facility. The cap design integrated pockets for the rail system, access ramps, and a utility trench. The platform design reused existing steel framing and piling at the owner’s request. The framing required retrofit for the new service loads. The Type 3 bulkhead construction was completed in May 2024. Cummins Cederberg provided construction administration services while simultaneously providing marine structural design services for Phase 2 of the project.

Phase 2 of the project consists of the structural design of the 1,600 LF Type 1 bulkhead, which is currently underway. The Type 1 bulkhead design includes a steel king pile – sheet pile combination wall (combi-wall) supported by an upland anchor wall with plumb and battered steel H-piles and a concrete cap to support the proposed dredge elevations, up to -33 ft NAVD88. Exploratory excavations to evaluate existing anchoring and the condition of the upland anchor wall were conducted, as the Owner requested partial salvage of the existing anchor system for re-use. Cummins Cederberg also performed a structural engineering analysis using the SAP 2000 and AllPile software to design the mooring dolphins that will anchor the floating dry dock.