Structure of the Pier

The Cal Poly pier is a steel and concrete pier that extends 1 km into San Luis Bay. This is the only pier in the US that is made mostly from steel. The structure is 7 m wide with a one-lane road for access to a large platform at the south end of the pier. Picture of the road. The facility has two components, the base of the pier and the pier itself.

The base of the pier is a two-acre open bluff with a parking area for vehicles. A 2000 sq ft structure located on the platform provides office and workshop space, a dive locker and a laboratory/classroom area. This class room space is planed to be expanded to 10000 ft in the future. A flowing seawater lab, currently under design, will be constructed on the platform, which we will use to provide life support for local fauna and flora for both undergraduate education and collaborative research efforts.

An existing boat landing allows access to the ocean for various educational and research activities. Planned improvements to the landing area include a floating dock and a 4-ton jib crane capable of launching and retrieving vessels. Plans for boat dock improvment. A high-speed Internet connection between the campus and pier aids in data and information transfers. The pier facility is supplemented on campus with marine faculty analytical laboratories.

The pier has pipes that run the length of it along the road that leads to the main platform. Picture of Pipes. These pipes have been cleaned and could be used for many things. Cal Poly has the idea that the pipes can be removed leaving space for widening of the entry road and extra parking or extra class room space. The pipes already have a base structure and would just need to be removed. The new structure could then easily be put on the base structure that was underneath the pipes.

The square structure is one of the many features that makes the Cal Poly pier so strong. These square stuctures are placed throughout the pier to add extra stability to the already exsisting pillars. As you can also see, the pilers have black plastic rap around the parts that are submerged in water to help prevent the corrosion of the pilers by the sea water.

The pier it self was built to withstand a 200 year storm. It has many structural improvements over the old pier, mainly that is made from steal. There is steal grating along all of the roads to allow the wave energy to flow through it. All of the pillars anchoring the pier are drilled down in to the bed rock and then filled with concrete. The pillars have a plastic wrap around them to prevent rusting and corrosion of the steal. In adition, there is a sacrificial cathode that helps prevent corrosion.