Work starts on £9m Gladstone Dock widening

PEEL Ports has appointed Farrans Construction to carry out works to widen Gladstone Lock and adjacent quayside infrastructure at the Port of Liverpool.

The operator said no disruption to business at the port is expected during the £9m upgrade, which is expected to be completed around December 2014.

The improvements will increase efficiency for the transit of vessels within Seaforth Dock at the port. The upgrade includes new fendering around the Gladstone Lock port entry and a re-ordering of quayside activities adjacent to the Royal Seaforth Container Terminal (RSCT), including the construction of a new quay wall.

The upgrade is one of a series of investments by Peel Ports to boost operational efficiency at the Port of Liverpool. It comes ahead of the launch of the port’s deep water container terminal Liverpool2, which will double the port’s current container capacity.

The increasing size of modern vessels has led to a need to increase the width of the Seaforth passage in order to improve the necessary turnaround times for the larger vessels within tidal windows.

Douglas Coleman, programme director for Peel Ports said: “The Farrans Construction proposals represented a technically robust solution to an extremely challenging and complex project.”

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