Burlington Harbor Marina

Burlington Harbor Marina, the no. 1 destination on the beautiful waters of Lake Champlain, has become a hub for summer boating activity. The harbor is just a few blocks away from Vermont’s downtown Burlington Church Street market place, restaurants, shopping, bike paths, walking trails, breweries, entertainment and more. This prime location has become a  local tourist attraction for New Englanders and Canadians alike.

Working with Meeco Sullivan, The Marina Company and the marina itself, McLaren analyzed the dock and anchorage materials and calculations for layouts that would best fit the marina’s development goals. Previously, acquiring a boat slip in the area could come with a 2 to 5 year waitlist. Burlington Harbor Marina was built with 160 slips, including over 60 transient slips for boats up to 80’. The new marina and its additional slips in varying sizes, have given more boaters access to enjoy all of what Burlington has to offer.

The private marina, operating under a long term lease agreement with the city, offers a world-class SF Marina wave attenuation system, new waterfront marina park with pet area, observation deck, parking lot, shower facilities, laundry, ship store, fuel dock (non-ethanol and diesel), golf cart dock service, 24-hour security and all-encompassing yacht butler service. All slips are equipped with water, electricity and fiber optic WiFi.

The McLaren Difference: Applied Ingenuity

For this $7 million design-build project, our marine engineers worked within the tight time constraints to determine the allowable vertical and horizontal pull forces at the anchor locations for the floating dock helical anchor and chain system. Concepts and structural details were engineered so that they could take higher loads, thus reducing the number of catenaries and chains required. To meet customer requirements for a marina self-installation these services were vital as the loads determined from the ATM specifications were higher than anticipated.