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DE LONG FLOATING PIER - VIETNAM
The DeLong Floating Pier expedited port construction. Patented by the DeLong Corporation, the piers were sectional and were fabricated outside of the theater in a variety of sizes and configurations. They were then towed to a site and quickly emplaced. The DeLong piers made it possible to develop additional deep-draft ports and berths at Qui Nhon, Vung Tau, Cam Rahn Bay, Vung Ro, and Da Nang in record time. The first DeLong pier was towed to Cam Rahn Bay from the eastern US in a trip that took 2 months. The 497th Port Construction Company installed it. The pier was essentially a 90 x 300 foot barge supported by 18 tubular steel caissons 6 feet in diameter and 50 feet long, driven into the harbor bottom. The first DeLong pier, completed in mid-December 1965, doubled the capacity of the Cam Ranh Bay port. Work started on a third pier in 1966, that was 90 feet wide x 600 feet long.
The De Long Pier under construction (left) and from the air (right), Cam Rahn Bay.
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