Aberdeen Harbour has awards £4.3million worth of contracts for the South Harbour construction project.
The awards cover the transfer of the remaining caissons – the 50m-long blocks that will form the North Castlegate Quay and East Dunnottar Quays – from their current storage location in the Cromarty Firth, through to their placement within the new harbour.
Several firms have been awarded work supporting the various elements of the project, including north-east companies Ocean Kinetics, Caledonian Towage and Miller Plant, along with Ashleigh Contract and Leiths.
Michelle Handforth, chief executive of Aberdeen Harbour Board said: “Work on site, and the procurement processes that support it, are progressing at pace now and we are pleased to be announcing these further contract awards today. We expect that the first caisson transfer may take place shortly.”
John Henderson, managing director of Ocean Kinetics, said the firm had been providing services to Aberdeen Harbour Board in their North Harbour for several years now.
He said: “We are delighted to be extending this support to the South Harbour Construction Project. We feel that this is such an important project for the north-east of Scotland, whilst work involved demonstrates the highly specialised and diverse nature of the services that Ocean Kinetics can provide the industry.”
Philip Conacher, contracts director at Ashleigh Contracts said they were also delighted to be awarded further work for and in support of Aberdeen Harbour Board’s remaining caisson installations.
He said: “We very much look forward to a collaborative effort with all those involved in this important next stage of the Aberdeen Harbour Expansion Project.”
Project engineering director Keith Young added: “The use of caissons in constructing the fixed quay elements of the new harbour provides the facilities with incredible heavy-lift capacity, and significantly reduces the amount of concrete required in the construction of the harbour. This feature is one of many being employed in the project to ensure that we construct the new facilities with as little impact on the natural environment as possible.”
All work on the Aberdeen Harbour expansion project is being carried out in line with Scottish Government Covid-19 guidelines.