Seaplane Lagoon Ferry Terminal

Seaplane Lagoon Ferry Terminal is a gem of San Francisco Bay Ferry offering a quick 20-minute ferry service between Alameda and downtown San Francisco. It’s key to the redevelopment of the former Alameda naval air base and offers an unbeatable commuter and visitor transportation option.

Power Engineering Construction was the prime contractor on the design-build delivery of this new ferry terminal.

The marine portion of the terminal consists of a new concrete pier, a 90-ft long gangway connecting the pier to a boarding float, and a 135-ft long by 42-ft wide steel float designed and outfitted for operations by WETA (Water Emergency Transportation Authority) vessels, also known as San Francisco Bay Ferry.

The crew, headed up by Power Engineering’s Project Manager Brian Shalk, mentions a couple of the challenges overcome while building the terminal, which was completed in August 2020.

“One obstacle, during pile driving, was encountering harder sands than expected which led to early refusal for most of our concrete and steel piles,” explains Shalk. “The solution was to use real-time pile driving data to re-analyze the actual install conditions of the piles.” In addition, “the landside portion of the pier sits on fill that was installed by the Navy over 80 years ago. In a seismic event, this fill is subject to liquefaction – which would lead to high lateral displacements of the structure. To mitigate this risk, ground improvements were implemented by means of installing forty-five 6ft diameter Deep Soil Mixing (DSM) columns over a 4,000SF landing area.”

Another challenge was the precision required for installation of pre-fabricated components of the project. Due to schedule constraints, a tensioned PTFE (fabric) canopy was fabricated at an off-site location prior to the pier construction. This required the concrete pier to be constructed with extreme precision. This level of detail during the survey, pile driving, and concrete work made for a smooth installation of the architecturally pleasing canopy.

Ferry service is in full operation and open for service!

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