RED7MARINE AWARDED PILING WORKS FOR PORTLAND PORT’S DEEP-WATER BERTH

The Marine Partner of Choice, Red7Marine, has been awarded the £3.6M piling scope for Portland’s new deep-water berth, which will allow larger ships to dock in the Port.

The deep-water berth being constructed will extend up to 250m in length and have a new water depth of 12m CD.

The work is being carried out is to replace the existing 1978 island berth which was constructed from a suspended reinforced concrete deck on steel piles. The new facility will welcome larger cruise liners, Panamax bulk carriers and Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels.

Red7Marine will be carrying out the piling for the project which involves the installation of 136 new steel tubular piles with intermediate sheet piles to create a 400m of new combi-wall structure.

The piling will be carried out from the deck of Red7Marine’s 1,000t jack-up barge, the Haven SeaChallenger. The jack-up barge features a bull rail arrangement on the port side which allows fitment of a pile gate which will be used on the project as a gating system to install the piles to accuracy and tolerance. Red7Marine is currently working with specialist engineers, MintMech, to design a piling gate for the project.

The Haven SeaChallenger will be towed from its current position in Ramsgate, around the coast to Portland towards the end of August. Red7Marine’s operations team are currently working on the barge, preparing for this exciting project.

Also on-site, Red7Marine’s 400t Haven SeaSeven jack-up barge will be used as well as the Haven SeaStabler (a modular stabilised barge cross between a flat-top barge and a jack-up barge) to support the operations.

Kristen Branford, Managing Director at Red7Marine comments: “This is an exciting project for the Red7Marine team to be involved with. We have a longstanding relationship with Portland Port, having constructed two large dolphins for the cruise berth extension back in 2017 with TMS and CMP Thames.

We’re looking forward to using our Haven SeaChallenger for the piling, it is a 1,000t monohull jack-up barge built by Japanese manufacturer Nippon, it’s more than double the size of our previous largest jack-up.

We’ll be starting on-site later this year and we are in conversations now with local contractors who will be supporting the project, such as workboat providers.

This project is a great example of the turn-key service we offer our clients, providing bespoke marine access solutions utilising three of our own vessels, as well as carrying out the marine construction activities on-site.”

Alex Hayes, General Manager Landside at Portland Port comments: “This is a key investment for the port and demonstrates our commitment to the continued development of our infrastructure.

This investment is driven by our need to meet the demand for the ever-increasing size of new vessels and with our existing infrastructure ageing, it has been an important time for us to develop these plans.

We are looking forward to once again working with trusted partners including Red7Marine, to deliver a successful project that will benefit the surrounding areas and industry for years to come.”

Construction work will begin in October, at the end of the cruise season and the new berth will be operational by December 2023.