Thunder Alley is the redevelopment of the Hi-Lift Marina in Aventura adjacent to the famed N.E. 188th Street, Thunder Row, which was the birthplace of performance boats. The proposed marina redevelopment will consist of an automated dry stack storage building with 252 dry slips to accommodate boats up to 39 feet long in the proposed 90 foot high building. The revolutionary technology features two laser-guided, computer-controlled overhead bridge cranes that run the entire length of the facility. These electric lifts will be able to haul the boat from the water in a cushioned cradle and deliver a boat to its customized slip.
Coastal Systems worked with a multi-disciplined team of architects, land planners, and marina developers to design and obtain environmental permits for the marina redevelopment. Marina planning was completed to optimize the staging docks and wet slips for dry stack operations with the automated facility. Initial concepts were developed for a launching/retrieval basin within the dry stack building with associated docks, however the canal dimensions were maintained and the docks were reconfigured in the final design layout. The marine works for the facility were designed to include floating staging docks for 11 vessels, floating docks for six wet slips and fixed docks for nine wet slips along the adjacent property of the canal. Maintenance dredging was also designed for the planned elevator lift systems to launch/retrieve vessels for the automated crane system located inside the dry stack building.
Environmental permits for the project were processed through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), and Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resources Management. The issued environmental permits addressed compliance with historical use of the facility in accordance with the Miami-Dade County Manatee Protection Plan, proposed dredged material sampling and handling requirements, stormwater management permitting through the FDEP, and utilities coordination for the proposed fuel and sewage pump-out systems. Environmental permits for all three agencies (federal, state and local) were issued in 2009, and construction is pending.
We constructed a complete offshore mooring system for Royal Caribbean in Labadee, Haiti.