Davidson Lab tests safeguards for expanded FDR Drive

This week, Davidson Laboratory at Stevens Institute of Technology will test a new "Floating Fender" system designed to protect a widened one-mile length of Manhattan's riverside FDR Drive. The goal is to prevent damage from accidental ship impacts, both to the construction crews and the subsequent expanded East River roadway.

A Stevens' research assistant professor, Raju Datla, who is resident at Davidson Laboratory, is supervising the work. The tests were commissioned by the engineering consulting firm of Frederic R. Harris, Inc., of New York City. (Press are welcome to attend the tests; if interested, please call or e-mail the above News Service contact.)

One of the large testing tanks at Davidson Lab is being used to simulate the collision of a ship with the Floating Fender system in the Hell Gate area off Manhattan. The system is being perfected to withstand a worst-case scenario: The 10-foot ship mock-up is scaled to represent a 660-foot container vessel, large by East River standards; the remote-controlled model can be sent toward the Fender system at speeds and angles of varying severity.

Hell Gate is found where the northern tip of Roosevelt Island ends in the cross currents of the Harlem River and the East River; the more distant inlet to Long Island Sound also exerts a strong influence. Currents can sometimes achieve a surprisingly swift nine knots off Manhattan when conditions allow. The area is the site of numerous runnings-aground and other waterway mishaps each year, due to those currents.

When the changes to the FDR Drive are complete several years from now, portions of the roadway will be stilted out over the East River and therefore more exposed to river traffic. The Floating Fender system will serve as a deflection device and a buffer against collisions. It will consist of approximately one mile of tempered, jointed steel tubing attached at intervals to pontoon-like floatation devices called "dolphins." The dolphins are then anchored to the riverbed via a series of water-resistant tethers. The whole system will lie 100 feet or so out from the roadway in the East River.

Under the direction of Dr. Michael Bruno, Davidson Laboratory is a hydrodynamic and ocean engineering research center. Davidson is a division of Stevens' Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering. The lab conducts numerous marine engineering tests for the government and private industry every year. Very shortly, the lab will be testing the feasibility of new floating ferry terminal near the World Financial Center in New York City.

A new research and partnering initiative, the Intelligent Marine Infrastructure project (IMI) is also underway. (See the Stevens News Service news release for April 12, 2001, "Endangered infrastructure is topic of symposium at Stevens.") For more information, please visit the Davidson Lab home page at www.stevens.edu/engineering/cms.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

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