Commercial, Municipal and Military Marine Construction

Alongside residential waterfront, we work for commercial, municipal and military clients across Northeast Florida. The engineering is the same discipline; the requirements around it are not.

The St. Vincent’s pavilion

We built the dock and marine wall at the St. Vincent’s pavilion in Jacksonville — a project combining a dock structure with a marine wall, on a site with the access constraints, coordination requirements and documentation standards that institutional work brings.

It is the kind of project where the marine scope has to fit around everything else happening on the site, and where the structure has to serve a public setting rather than a single family. More in our projects.

What commercial work asks for that residential does not

USL&H coverage. Longshore & Harbor Workers’ coverage is a federally mandated requirement for employers whose workers do maritime-adjacent work that falls outside traditional state workers’ compensation. It is a separate scheme rather than an addition to state cover, and a contractor carrying only the latter leaves the project owner exposed for work over water. We carry both. Public and commercial contracts routinely require it, and it is a reasonable question to ask any marine bidder — many do not have it.

Certified General Contractor licensing. We hold Florida CGC #1533461.

Documentation and coordination. Submittals, schedules, inspections, coordination with other trades and with facility operations. Marine scope on a developed site usually has to work around things that cannot stop.

Site constraints. Public and commercial waterfront is frequently harder to get equipment to than a residential back yard, and often has to stay partly in use while work proceeds.

Permitting at scale. Commercial and municipal marine work generally involves the same agencies as residential — FDEP, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the St. Johns River Water Management District and local authorities — with more scrutiny and longer review. Requirements change; confirm current requirements with the reviewing agency. We handle permitting.

Who we work for

• Commercial — marinas, waterfront businesses, restaurants, hotels and private facilities
• Municipal — public docks, access structures and shoreline protection
• Military — marine structures on military property in Northeast Florida
• Institutional — healthcare, education and similar facilities with waterfront

Scope we cover

Structures: commercial docks and piers, public access structures, boarding and observation platforms, decks.

Shoreline protection: seawalls and bulkheads at commercial scale, erosion control and shoreline stabilization, void filling and soil stabilization.

Structural marine: pile driving, cleaning, restoration and jacketing, concrete repair.

Facility services: marine inspections for condition assessment and capital planning, marina maintenance and debris removal, boat lift and boathouse work.

As a subcontractor

We are regularly engaged for the marine scope on projects led by a general contractor whose expertise is land-based. If you have a project with a waterfront component, send us the scope and schedule.

Get in touch

Call (904) 327-3931 or email quote@barefootmarine.com with your scope, drawings and schedule.