Posted bid documents
Specifications and drawings included, in both official languages, at the same time and of equal quality (Treasury Board guide).
Small craft harbours: what a wharf or breakwater package contains, in English and French.
Small craft harbours are the federal system of harbours for commercial fishers and other users. Each wharf, breakwater, launching ramp or dredging job goes out as a package of specification sections and drawings. This post lists the sections it draws on and their marine terms in English and French, as the National Master Specification words them.
What is a small craft harbour?
For the people who design and build them, a small craft harbour is a run of marine jobs: rebuilding a wharf or a breakwater, placing a floating wharf, pouring a launching ramp, dredging the basin, or removing an old wharf and restoring the seabed. We have translated packages of each kind, for federal owners and the consulting engineers who design the work. For one example, see how we translated the studies of two Arctic harbours for a French-speaking bidder.
The jobs a harbour package covers
- 01Wharf reconstruction
- 02Breakwater
- 03Floating wharf
- 04Launching ramp
- 05Dredging
- 06Wharf removal and seabed remediation
What does a small craft harbour package contain?
A harbour package is a set of specification sections and the drawings that go with them. The sections come from the National Master Specification, the federal master specification, and a harbour job draws on a predictable part of it: the general requirements and environmental procedures, the demolition of the old structure, concrete, piles, rip-rap, and the waterway and marine construction sections of Division 35.
SectionEnglish titleFrench title
- 01 35 43Environmental proceduresProtection de l'environnement
- 02 41 16Structure demolitionDémolition de structures
- 03 30 00Cast-in-place concreteBéton coulé en place
- 03 37 26Underwater placed concreteBéton mis en place sous l'eau
- 31 37 00Rip-rapPerrés
- 31 62 16.13Sheet steel pilesPalplanches d'acier
- 31 62 19Timber pilesPieux en bois
- 35 20 24DredgingDragage
- 35 31 19RevetmentsOuvrages de protection
- 35 31 23.13Rubble mound breakwatersBrise-lames en enrochements
- 35 51 23PontoonsFlotteurs
- 35 59 13.19Rubber marine fendersDéfenses d'accostage en caoutchouc
- 35 59 29Mooring devicesDispositifs d'amarrage
A launching ramp can be a short package; a full wharf repair runs to dozens of sections with its drawings. Either way, the drawings name the same structures as the sections: the breakwater on the plan is the structure the breakwater section specifies, and the bidder prices it from both.
Which marine terms must match on the drawings and in the specification?
The terms of every structure the bidder prices. When a callout on the drawing and the title of the section use different words, a bidder working in French has to guess whether they are the same thing, and a guess in a tender becomes a question, an addendum or a claim. The official French titles of the National Master Specification settle most of them:
- Rubble mound breakwater is brise-lames en enrochements (section 35 31 23.13), and a breakwater alone is a brise-lames.
- Rip-rap is perré (31 37 00); enrochement is also seen.
- Dredging is dragage (35 20 24), and maintenance dredging of a waterway is dragage d’entretien de voie navigable (35 01 40.51).
- Sheet steel piles are palplanches d’acier (31 62 16.13).
- Pontoons are flotteurs (35 51 23), and mooring devices are dispositifs d’amarrage (35 59 29).
- Rubber marine fenders are défenses d’accostage en caoutchouc (35 59 13.19).
A wharf is a quai, and a finger dock an appontement. Our construction glossary and the NMS divisions in English and French hold the rest.
Does a federal harbour package have to be in both languages?
Posted bid documents do. Under the Treasury Board’s guide to official languages in federal procurement, posted bid documents, specifications and drawings included, appear in both official languages, at the same time and of equal quality. The solicitation and the contract set the rest. The Official Languages Act itself binds the federal institution, not your drawings: our guide to the Official Languages Act on federal projects sets out what binds you as a consultant or contractor.
The solicitation sets
The rest: the language of your deliverables, wherever the site is.
How do we translate a harbour package?
We work from one term base, so the sections and the drawings say the same thing. The specification sections use the official NMS French where the text is standard, and the AutoCAD drawings are translated in the DWG, so every callout comes back in the terms of the section that specifies it. See how we handle National Master Specification sections, the rest of our transportation translation work, and our post on transit-system documents. To see where your own past packages disagree with themselves, send one to the free terminology check.
Common questions
What is a small craft harbour in French?
Port pour petits bateaux. It is the name Fisheries and Oceans Canada uses for the program and its harbours in French.
What is a breakwater in French?
Brise-lames. The National Master Specification section for rubble mound breakwaters, 35 31 23.13, is Brise-lames en enrochements.
What is a wharf in French?
Quai. A finger dock is an appontement, and a rubber marine fender is a défense d’accostage en caoutchouc.
Can you translate a harbour package from French to English?
Yes. The term base holds each term in both languages, so it applies in either direction.
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