12 September, 2008

LERWICK Port Authority is preparing plans to build deep water quays in the north harbour as the £12 million dredging project reaches completion.

Contractor Westminster Dredging are set to complete the deepening of the harbour’s north entrance on schedule, with some dredging plant set to leave the islands in the next few days.

The navigational channel in the harbour’s north entrance has been widened and deepened to nine metres to accommodate the larger ships which now want to use the port.

The Greenhead Basin and landing berth at Shetland Catch fish factory are now the same depth, allowing the larger fishing boats and the vessels involved in the oil decommissioning industry to use the harbour more easily.

Extra dredging has deepened the landing berth access at the Heogan fishmeal factory to eight metres, Mair’s yard is now six metres deep and an area in the inner harbour anchorage has been lowered to 10 metres.

Contractor Westminster Dredging is preparing surveys of the dredged areas prior to replacing the navigation buoys to mark the newly deepened channels.

Now drill and blast operations have been completed ahead of schedule by the barge Playmate, which has been released along with one of the disposal barges. The backhoe dredger Manu Pekka is now finishing off and should be released next week with the second disposal barge.

Harbourmaster Captain Calum Grains said “The dredging phase of the project is on schedule. We expect to see a number of large ships transiting through the harbour to and from Greenhead Base this winter.”

The final job involves protecting the land reclamation site created north of Greenhead Base. Large rock armour stone has been delivered from Norway and materials are now on site to complete the works by early November. A total of 14.4 acres of land has been created by re-using the dredged material.

Lerwick Port Authority chief executive Sandra Laurenson said: “The authority has already started planning its next capital projects to provide deep water quays enabled by the dredging.

“The 2008 dredging works are part of the constant evolution of the harbour to keep pace with shipping. We forecast that dredging will be required again in the harbour in the future.”