Works to prepare a historic jetty at Her Majesty’s Naval Dockyard Portsmouth for the arrival of the largest warships ever built for the Royal Navy have been completed, the UK Ministry of Defense just announced.
The jetty, parts of which date back over 90 years, has been refurbished to prepare for the first of the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers.
This project also includes a significant amount of dredging work in the approach channel, inner harbor area and berth in order to make them deep and wide enough for the new ships, moving three million cubic meters of clay, sand and gravel from an area the size of 200 football pitches.
Boskalis has been contracted by the Defense Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) to carry out this £31 million dredging program.
DIO Project Manager, Philip Wise, said: “I am delighted that the works to the jetty are completed. It is a crucial element of the £100m infrastructure package being delivered to support the arrival of the carriers into their homeport of Portsmouth. We are looking forward to seeing the first of the ships berthing against the new and improved jetty later this year.”
With the core jetty works complete and new specialist equipment delivered, the Naval Base’s preparations for the arrival of the Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) Carriers are centered on a program of Familiarization, Integration and Testing, otherwise known as FIT, the ministry said.
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