Southwest Shipyards Barge Construction Building — Marine Facility Structural Engineering in Galveston, TX
Galveston · Galveston County · Texas
Structural Engineering
Civil and structural engineering for a barge construction and launch facility
JRH Engineering provided complete civil and structural engineering design for a large-scale barge construction building on Pelican Island in Galveston, Texas — a facility large enough to build intercoastal barges and launch them directly into the ship channel. The structural challenge was significant: foundations capable of supporting four 60-ton overhead cranes, driven approximately 130 feet deep. JRH resolved the foundation design, integrated rail tracks for side-launch operations, and secured approvals from both the City of Galveston and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
AT A GLANCE
Structural engineering
Augur cast pier foundation designed with piers driven approximately 130 feet deep — required to reach bearing capacity below Galveston soft coastal soils
Pile caps designed to support four 60-ton overhead cranes — simultaneous crane loading accounted for in the foundation design
Foundation design was the critical path item: without a resolved structural solution, no other aspect of the project could move forward
Site civil design
Full site civil design for the industrial marine facility including access, grading, and drainage
Rail tracks integrated into the site design to allow side-launch of completed barges directly into the ship channel — eliminating the need for a separate launch facility
Site layout designed around the operational sequence: barge construction inside the building, rail transport to the water edge, side-launch into the channel
Permitting and agency coordination
City of Galveston permit for the building and site improvements
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit for the ship channel interface and marine construction activity
Both approvals pursued concurrently — marine and building permits coordinated as a single project
The Challenge — 240 tons of crane capacity on soft coastal soil
Building a facility capable of constructing and launching full-size intercoastal barges required solving a structural problem most firms would find challenging: how to support four 60-ton overhead cranes simultaneously on Galveston soft coastal soils. The answer is deep foundation engineering — but the depth required and the load requirements made this a high-stakes structural design challenge on the project critical path.
JRH’s Approach — piers to the bearing stratum, then a rail-integrated site
JRH designed augur cast piers driven to approximately 130 feet, deep enough to reach the bearing stratum below Galveston compressible coastal soils. Pile caps were engineered for simultaneous crane loading across all four cranes. With the foundation resolved, the site design integrated rail tracks that allowed completed barges to be moved from the construction bay to the ship channel edge and side-launched.
The Results
01
130-foot deep augur cast pier foundation engineered for four simultaneous 60-ton overhead cranes — a critical path structural challenge resolved
02
Rail-integrated site design enabled direct barge side-launch into the ship channel — no separate launch facility required
03
Dual-agency approval from the City of Galveston and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed concurrently
04
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the main engineering challenge on the Southwest Shipyards project?
The facility needed foundations capable of supporting four 60-ton overhead cranes simultaneously on Galveston's soft coastal soils, a high-stakes structural challenge on the project's critical path.
How did JRH Engineering design the foundation for the barge construction building?
JRH designed augur cast piers driven approximately 130 feet deep to reach adequate bearing capacity below the compressible coastal soils, with pile caps engineered for simultaneous loading across all four cranes, and integrated rail tracks for direct barge side-launch into the ship channel.
What were the results of the Southwest Shipyards project?
JRH resolved the critical-path foundation challenge with a 130-foot deep pier system for four simultaneous 60-ton cranes, enabled direct barge launch through rail-integrated site design, and secured concurrent approval from the City of Galveston and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.