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US 4,487,151 AGranted
Floating highway
OwnerSalvatore Deianainventor
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OwnerSalvatore Deianainventor
Estimating the term…
The present invention is a floating highway unit which has a structure which facilitates both removal from linkage in a series of units forming the highway, provides for simple alignment of the units during assembly, and also allows vertical movement caused by tides and waves. Protection is provided for the highway by use of a partly floating barrier, for damping wave motion, thus substantially reducing the amount of absolute and relative movement of the floating highway units. Each of the floating units of the present invention is comprised of a generally rectangular horizontal pontoon including provisions for floatation of the pontoon, the pontoon having a centrally located horizontal tongue extending outwardly from a short side of the pontoon whereby the top surface of the tongue is an extension of the top surface of the pontoon. A recess is located in the opposite side of the pontoon having a shape for enclosing the tongue which matches the shape of the tongue. A slot extends across the width of the tongue, and a pair of in-line slots extends across at least part of each of the opposite sides of the pontoon into the recess on opposite sides of the recess respectively. The later slots are coextensive with the slot in a tongue of an adjacent pontoon when it is enclosed in the recess. A key is inserted in the coextensive slots to retain the floating units together.
A floating highway unit comprised of a generally rectangular horizontal pontoon including means for floatation of the pontoon, a centrally located horizontal tongue which is progressively narrower in plan toward its nose extending outwardly from a short side of the pontoon, the top surface of the tongue being an extension of the top surface of the pontoon, a recess in the opposite side of the pontoon having a shape for enclosing the tongue which matches the shape of the tongue, a slot extending from the to surface of the tongue across the width of the tongue, and a pair of in-line slots from the top surface of the pontoon extending across at least part of said opposite side of the pontoon into said recess on opposite sides of the recess respectively, the latter slots being coextensive with the slot in a tongue of another unit which may be enclosed in the recess.
A floating highway comprising a plurality of floating concrete pontoons linked together at opposite ends, each pontoon having a tongue at one end which progressively narrows in width toward its nose and which extends forward of the pontoon and a recess in the shape matching that of the tongue at its opposite end, each tongue being enclosed by the recess of an adjacent pontoon, three horizontal slots extending into the slab from the top surface of the slab transversely across the tongue and across the two pontoon regions adjacent the recess, the slots of a tongue and said pontoon regions of a pair of linked pontoons having a common axis, and a key disposed in said common axis slots of each pair of linked pontoons.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.