Inland Harbours

Inland harbours are built in rivers or canals, at the mouth or in an estuary of a river.

The main difference compared to maritime harbours is that the vessels in inland waterways are smaller, and have generally speaking lower drafts, so that the quay wall heights are relatively small compared to deep sea quay walls. There are however a few exceptions to that rule.

The design of inland harbour structures is quite similar to the ones in maritime harbours. However, in some cases, quay walls in rivers and canals are built along the river, so that actions like erosion due to sand flow may have to be taken into account in the design.

In some cases, berthing structures are only composed of isolated dolphins serving as a berthing structure of the vessels. This is a quite effective solution for temporary loading / unloading facilities along a river / canal.