Barbers Point Harbor: A Unique Solution for Port Upgrade

A remote-controlled model of a C9 containership was used to evaluate the navigability of existing harbor and entrance channel conditions in a three-dimensional physical model of Barbers Point, Oahu, Hawaii. The model ship is the 'design' ship selected to service the harbor into the 21st century. The 1:75 model includes the deep-draft harbor, barge basin, marina, entrance channel, and offshore bathymetry to the 30 m contour. The navigation conditions in the existing harbor will provide baseline data for evaluating several proposed changes to the harbor and channel. These changes include deepening and widening the entrance channel, and deepening and expanding the deep-draft harbor. Unique aspects of this study include the availability of field measurements of wind, wave and longshore current conditions, a wavemaker which can simulate the directional aspects of naturally-occurring waves in a laboratory environment, testing with a longshore current, assistance of a local harbor pilot to ensure realistic simulation, and the remote-controlled, model containership.