dock and lock gates

Renowned the world over for the design of gates for dry docks, locks and impounded basins, Royal Haskoning has carried out hundreds of gate projects since the early 1960s, designing and developing some of the worlds largest and most innovative gates. As well as carrying out the structural design of dock and lock gates by finite element analysis, our service includes preparation of ballasting, buoyancy and stability calculations and procedures for the installation, operation and maintenance of gates. All our gate designs have a high level of innovation leading to significant cost savings through steelwork reduction. We take full account of the unique parameters of each gate design, including operation, manoeuvring and maintenance. Our track record covers the full spectrum of gate sizes and operational features both new and replacement:
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Dry Dock Entrance Gates

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Flap Gates: Box, Cantilever, Modular Propped Caisson Gates Floating Mitre Gates Inverted Y Lambda L Ship lock sliding, rolling Marina lock double sector, single sector, delta, mitre, flap, half-tide

Dry Dock Intermediate Gates

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Lock Gates
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Water Control Gates

Royal Haskoning gate designs

Flap gates are supported by hinges to the entrance sill of a dock or basin and are opened
by lowering them down into the water so they lie on the seabed below the sill. Flap gates are usually provided with buoyancy tanks to minimise the operating load on the winches or hydraulic rams. This type of gate can be used to maintain water levels in a wet dock during low tide. Larger gates are usually installed in modern ship repair docks where speed of operation is important. Flap gates can be designed to either span an entrance (up to around 80m) or are cantilevered or propped off the sill.

Images from left to right:

Flap Gate Propped, Floating Caisson Gate, Sliding Gate, Intermediate Gate Lambda

Floating caisson gates are one of the most common forms of dock gate. Because they
have to be pumped out, floated and manoeuvred, they are not generally considered for modern ship repair docks, but used mainly for shipbuilding dock entrances where the time to open and close the gate is not critical. We have developed the inverted T shaped floating gate design especially for very wide shipbuilding docks. As a gravity-stabilised gate, there is no limit to entrance width it can be designed for. The widest at present is 131m. The unique feature of this gate is that it can be fully maintained while in service.

Intermediate gates are used in large dry docks to subdivide the dock into two sections.
Generally the gates comprise either inverted Y or Lambda shaped modular steel units which are erected in the dry at fixed locations on the dock floor.

Sliding and rolling caisson gates are generally used for large ship locks and are opened
by withdrawing them into a chamber on one side of the lock entrance. The caisson is lightly ballasted so it can be slid or rolled on a track to and from its closed position across the entrance. These caissons are usually moved using winches with continuous chains or wire ropes.

Sector gates are usually installed in small locks often at an entrance to a marina. They are
installed in pairs or as a single gate and actuated by hydraulic rams which rotate them on a vertical axis. Their two main advantages are that they can be operated when there is a water head differential across, so they can be used for sluicing, and resist a water head on either side and hence protect against high tides and storm surges.

Mitre gates are one of the oldest types of gate, used as impounding gates in ports and
dry dock entrance gates. They are used particularly in small canal locks, where they are only required to resist water pressure from one direction. Historically constructed in timber, larger modern examples are fabricated in steel. A particularly economic form of gate design, they are arranged in pairs and hinge on vertical axis.

For more information contact:

David Greenhalgh, Tel: +44 (0) 1444 476 604, E-mail: d.greenhalgh@royalhaskoning.com

www.royalhaskoning.co.uk www.maritime-rh.com