Construction of Liverpool’s new deep water container terminal, Liverpool2, took a major step forward this week with the appointment by Peel Ports of specialised contractors BAM Nuttall and Van Oord to construct the new in-river quay wall. The companies have formed a joint venture to undertake work on the quay wall, which forms the berthing face for the Liverpool2 container terminal.
Work on the quay wall will benefit from extensive land based construction already underway to support the marine works including demolitions, site clearance and site offices for the construction work force and the Liverpool2 terminal operations team.
Dredging started on 6th June and the trailer suction dredgers WD Mersey, Sospan Dau and the UKD Orca removed 75,000m3 of alluvial silts from the site. The second phase saw the water injection dredger Jetset displacing a further 180,000m3 of silts. The large backhoe dredger Goliath will start work on 5th September, excavating and removing a further 315,000m3 of clay to the sea. Finally the mighty 7,000HP Artemis cutter suction dredger will liberate 588,000m3 of underlying rock, sand and gravels for reuse in the infill operations behind the quay wall.
Piling operations will commence on 10th September, with rock drilling to provide the sockets for the 47tonne 1.8m diameter 40m long steel combi piles. In excess of 19,000 tonnes of steelwork and 30,000 tonnes of concrete will be required for the construction of the quay wall alone.
The new terminal will open in 2015, the same year as the widening of the Panama Canal is due to be completed and will enable a new generation of container ships, with a capacity of up to 13,500 TEU, to call directly at the Port of Liverpool. The investment of £300m will enable container ships from around the world to connect directly with the northern half of the UK and Irish Sea hub and so access a market estimated at 4 million TEUs a year.
[mappress]
Press Release, August 13, 2013