The state park comprises a 12,496-acre recreational area and a 5,728-acre, man-made lake created by the damming of the Fourche Maline & Anadarche creeks.
Murray Harbor: designed, manufactured, and installed by Meeco Sullivan, was started in 2021 and completed in April of ’23. It currently features 352 rentable boat slips and is permitted for 450 total slips. Slips range in size from 28’ to 86’. Notable features include an on-water fuel pier, boat rentals, a ship store, bathrooms, full showers, laundry, food services, and RV camping. Almost all of which is supported by and involves hot-dip galvanized steel. The marina was named 2022 & 2023 “Marina of the Year” by Dock Age Magazine.
Many businesses that cater to tourism and recreational pursuits shuttered their doors during the 2020-2023 pandemic. At the very least, a few considered the months and years of mandatory closures and social distancing as a time for growth. The marina industry is an exception, and within that exception lies the exceptional Murray Harbor in Ardmore, Oklahoma. This public/private recreational marina went from a site of unused land to a fully functioning marina in just 15 months.
The principles for Meeco Sullivan have been built on over 150 years of combined industry experience, and three state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities for steel, timber, and aluminum floating docks. As far back as the 60’s, the most effective protection from corrosion for these water applications has been hot-dip galvanizing. Some of Meeco Sullivan’s earliest galvanized structures are still in use today, a reoccurring testimony to the effectiveness of hot-dip galvanizing.
Fabricated metal structures located in or near water bodies are some of the most challenging applications to protect from corrosion. Water hardness, temperature, impurities, PH, and erosion are all contributing factors of corrosion. Zinc already exists in the water as well as within every living creature.
An important feature in this application is that the coating of zinc on hollow members like structural tube that lives on the water, is the only coating option that provides equal internal protection, preventing any possibility of undetected, internal corrosion.
Another unique challenge of this project was to design it in a way to leave as much of the 100+ miles of coastline as uninterrupted as possible, which was cleverly overcome by connecting all the docks together by a master pier system and two gangway piers at each end. All of which was constructed using hot-dip galvanized steel.
Since galvanizing will always be a good partner to the marine industry, Meeco Sullivan will keep constructing these zinc-finished, attractive, floating recreational facilities, and zinc will continue to play a vital role in their fortitude against the elements.
“Water hardness, temperature, impurities, PH, and erosion are all contributing factors of corrosion to fabricated steel in marine environments.”
