RED7MARINE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETES PILING OPERATIONS FOR THE PORT OF DOVER’S NEW OUTER WAVE WALL

Red7Marine, The Marine Partner of Choice, has been working on-site alongside Principal Contractor, Knights Brown for the construction of a new outer wave wall in the Port of Dover. Red7Marine successfully completed the £1.7M piling operations at the end of March and the wall is now structurally complete.

Dover is the UK’s busiest international ferry port and a vital gateway for the movement of people and trade. It is also an award-winning cruise port, has a growing and diversifying cargo business and a brand-new marina which is a major feature of the exciting waterfront development.

In order to protect the marina from wave energy reflected from the north-eastern corner of the outer harbour at high water and alleviate swell during specific adverse weather conditions, Dover Harbour Board contracted Knights Brown to construct an Outer Wave Screen within the Outer Harbour.

The first stage of works were completed in July 2022 where Red7Marine installed 21no workboat piles in the entrance to the new marina with its 250t deck capacity Haven Seariser 4 jack-up barge.

Then in January, Red7Marine completed site investigation and UXO clearance works utilising a combination of a CPT with magnetometer and a long reach excavator on the deck of a 100t deck capacity jack-up barge.

For the main piling works, Red7Marine’s Haven Seariser 4 jack-up barge was re-mobilised following a contract completion at Portland Port. The barge was towed to site in Dover, equipped with a combi-wall piling gate which was modified in Red7Marine’s port-side fabrication facility in Ipswich specifically for the project.

The piling operations completed by Red7Marine consisted of a detached, piled wave screen of approximately 59m in length made up of 59no 1067mm diameter 27m long tubular piles at the entrance to the new marina within Dover Harbour.

Kristen Branford, Managing Director at Red7Marine comments: “It was great to be back working alongside Knights Brown for another successful piling project. This has been an excellent project to be involved with and despite some challenging weather and operational conditions all piles were installed within programme over the course of six weeks.

We look forward to the next project working with the Knights Brown team as its Marine Partner of Choice.”

Sean Hebden, Divisional Director at Knights Brown, said: “Port of Dover is a strategically important customer and we’re fortunate to have the support of Red7Marine as a specialist supply chain partner for projects such as the outer wave wall. We look forward to continuing our relationship.”