Florida’s leading container port, Port Everglades, handles
more than one million TEUs (an industry term meaning 20-foot equivalent units) and
serves as a gateway to Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia. Located
within the cities of Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, and Dania Beach, Florida, Port
Everglades is centrally located in one of the world's largest consumer regions.
The Port has direct access to the interstate highway system and the Florida
East Coast (FEC) Railway's intermodal container transfer facility and is closer
to the Atlantic Shipping Lanes than any other Southeastern U.S. port.
Ongoing capital improvements and expansion ensure that Port
Everglades continues to handle future growth in container traffic. Recently, the
Broward County Board of County Commissioners approved a $437.5 million
expansion project for Port Everglades to add new berths for larger cargo ships
and install crane rail infrastructure, marking it the largest expansion project in
the Port’s history.
A surface runoff solution was needed to remove water from
the new crane rail area. Given the extent of the expansion and the complexity
of the site, a Contech Slotted Drain solution was chosen to handle the anticipated
storm water sheet flow. Manufactured by Contech Engineered Solutions, the variable-height
steel Slotted Drain system was ideal in this situation. Each run was customized
to meet the strict site conditions. The Slotted Drain was installed inside the concrete
beams that support the new crane rail while simultaneously a very complex rebar
installation was also under construction.
Upon completion, the project contractor, Moss-Kiewit, will have installed 2,455 LF of 12-inch diameter, variable Slotted Drain. Each run was installed by hand and backfilled
with concrete. Slotted Drain provided an effective method to intercept storm
water runoff from the wide, flat areas of the crane rale area. The open grate
intercepts all the flow uniformly along the entire length, removing sheet flow
without multiple grades or water channeling devices.
Contech's Slotted Drain offered a customizable surface runoff solution that was both efficient and aesthetic, able to handle extremely tight site constraints with relative ease.