Coastal Engineering

Coastal engineering and design is a specialized field that encompasses all types of shoreline, estuary, and water-related activities for the construction industry. All marine sectors and waterways have interaction with coastal engineering in the forms of coastal and offshore structures, sediment transport considerations, dredging, and shore protection. These parameters result in environmental and hydrodynamic interfaces that mandate a specific and broad knowledge of many areas of engineering within this context. The field of coastal engineering extends into the realms of private and public ports, harbors, and marinas, as well as to agencies with naval bases and waterway jurisdictions. 

JMT provides services for feasibility studies, general and forensic evaluations, and full discipline engineering to ports, harbors, and small craft facilities. Our experience includes work with ferry terminals, levees, and dams, in addition to inspection and lab testing. 

Each project undertaken has unique characteristics such as vessel draft, offloading and storage requirements, launching and berthing arrangements, and many other considerations, which our engineering staff coordinate during planning at each location. 

We undertake tasks involving waterfront port facilities with wharves, piers, quays, vessel berths, ship-to-shore cranes, bollard and fendering systems, moorings and bulkheads, piling systems, and seawalls with sheetpiling and concrete. All applicable elemental forces are considered in the structural designs performed with analytical software tailored to the specifics of water/wave/land interactions. 

JMT’s coastal engineering and environmental staffs are versed in the various permitting requirements for waterfront structures involving local and Federal agencies including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.