Excess sand from the dock infill is now being moved to the 7.5Ha reclaim and the marine piling is almost complete (image courtesy of ABP/David Lee Photography
Construction work on the Green Port Hull Alexandra Dock site is progressing well and is on schedule for an early 2017 completion, Associated British Ports (ABP) has announced.
The 54-acre site, which ABP and its main contractor GRAHAM Lagan Construction Group Joint Venture (JV) are preparing for Siemens’ offshore wind turbine manufacturing facility, is being transformed in Hull’s biggest engineering project since the port was built. The enabling works undertaken by ABP and their contractors are worth £150 million.
The dock infill has now been completed, with one million cubic metres of sand pumped into the dock to fill one third of the water area. Excess sand was stored during this process to be used for the 7.5 hectare reclaim, which will become the new quayside and component storage areas, and this is now being pumped into position around the existing timber sheds and jetties, which will be demolished in the coming weeks.
Marine piling for the new quay wall is almost complete and piling for the anchor wall and roll on-roll off ramp is continuing.
The JV has now taken control of the east side of the site to begin preparatory works for the 25, 000 square metre service building. Five substations, which will supply 6MVA to the site, are also being built to supply the new facility with electricity.
ABP Director Humber Simon Bird is pleased with the progress being made on site.
He said: “It’s fantastic to see the site beginning to take shape and it’s testament to the hard work of the ABP project team, the main contractor and all of those organisations and individuals involved in the enabling works that the project is on schedule and Siemens’ facility will be operational by the end of 2016.”
ABP is the UK’s leading ports operator with 21 ports and other transport related businesses creating a unique national network capable of handling a vast array of cargo.
Around one quarter of the UK’s seaborne trade passes through ABP’s Statutory Harbour Areas. ABP contributes £5.6 billion to the UK economy every year and supports 84, 000 jobs. Our current investment programme promises to deliver an extra £1.75 billion for the economy every year.
ABP…
- Handled over 1.6 million vehicles in 2014.
- Generates around one quarter of the UK’s rail freight
- Has 1.4 million square metres of covered storage
- Has 1000 hectares of open storage
- Handled 94.5m tonnes of cargo in 2014
- Owns 5000 hectares of port estate
- Has 87km of quay
Over the next five years, ABP is investing over £650 million in a wide range of major projects across the group.
ABP Humber
The four ports of Grimsby, Immingham, Hull and Goole handle more than 65 million tonnes of cargo between them each year.
Grimsby and Immingham form the UK’s busiest trading gateway and move around 54 million tonnes of cargo per annum.
£130-plus million is currently being invested in the biomass handling terminal in Immingham, in a Humber-wide agreement with Drax Power Ltd that has seen £25 million invested in a biomass handling facility in Hull. The Immingham Renewable Fuels Terminal handles sustainable biomass shipments and will create over 100 permanent jobs once complete. The construction phase has also created 100 employment opportunities.
The Port of Hull handles 10 million tonnes of cargo per annum and is the is the focal point for the development of the UK’s largest offshore wind turbine construction, assembly, and service facility, which will be located on the Port’s Alexandra Dock. This new facility, coupled with a new rotor blade manufacturing base near Paull to the east of the port estate, represents a £310 million investment and could create up to 1000 direct jobs.
The Grimsby River Terminal represents an investment of £26 million and allows large car-carrying ships to berth outside the Port’s lock system. This development confirms the Port’s position as the UK’s leading automotive handling facility.
More than the equivalent of 1million teus (twenty foot equivalent unit) of unitised trade is shipped through ABP Humber ports.
Ro-ro and container traffic represents more than 30 sailings a week to Europe, Scandinavia the Baltic and beyond.
The Humber ports handle more than 70 freight train movements per day.
Goole is situated 50 miles upriver and is the UK’s premier inland port. It handles over two million tonnes of cargo annually.
