The Aberdeen South Harbour Project is one of Europe’s largest greenfield port capital investments projects in recent decades. With an investment of £400 million, the project involved the construction of two new breakwaters, each 600m long, quay lengths of over 1.5km, and two million cubic metres of dredging.
We provided engineering services from feasibility stage through to construction. Our involvement started with the master planning of the harbour; working extensively with hydraulic modellers, environmental specialists and planning consultants to ensure viability of the new port. This led to various preliminary designs to allow options to be appraised, budgets to be built up, licences to be applied for, wave modelling to be undertaken, ground investigation to be targeted and ultimately construction to be procured. We were retained as integral members of the team as lead design consultants and Principal Designers (in accordance with CDM regulations) providing technical scrutiny of the contractor’s proposals throughout the construction period.
As the project developed, we undertook the preliminary design of multiple solutions. This involved looking extensively at the layout of the new harbour, carefully marrying berthing and onshore requirements, wave regime, ground conditions, existing infrastructure, environmental and economic considerations. The schemes included geotechnical and structural designs of various quay constructions, including steel combi-wall piling, suspended concrete deck supported on piles and gravity concrete structures. In tandem with the quay structure, we developed dredging options taking cognisance of client requirements, wave agitation and environmental and ground conditions. Schemes were also developed for obtaining licences and creating layouts to ensure that the tender offered contractors the most flexibility when developing their own solutions.
Arch Henderson managed and supervised two multi-million pound marine based ground investigation campaigns within Nigg Bay. These advance works were procured and managed in accordance with NEC3 ECC and required stakeholder consultation and licensing in their own right. As the ground investigation works received EU grant funding strict procurement rules were adhered to, followed by careful project management and cost control.
