Project Data
| Client | Peterhead Port Authority | Value | £13,150,000 |
| Location | Peterhead, Aberdeenshire | Contract | ICE 7th Edition |
| Date | May – June 2006 | Duration | April 2009 – September 2010 |
Project Information
Capital dredging, reclamation quay construction and breakwater extension works for Peterhead Smith Embankment Development, to develop the area in the north of the harbour at Smith Embankment to provide sheltered berths for vessels ranging from 20 to 160m in length.
The project was awarded to a Joint Venture between Westminster Dredging and R J McLeod, a well known Scottish Civil Engineering contractor who were responsible for the piling and associated civil works involved with the new quay. Westminster Dredging carried out the dredging and reclamation following on from Rockfall who together with Terramare pre treated rock within the dredge area by drilling and blasting.
The R J McLeod works comprised the construction of a 120m long by 25.5m wide suspended deck quay; including fenders, services and deck furniture and mooring dolphin 40m west of the quay with linking tubular steel catwalk . The new quay is an open piled structure over a rock armour revetment. Tubular steel piles 25m long and 1.4m diameter were cored 10m into the rock substructure. The main deck is of composite steel and concrete construction with 24m long by 1.2m square steel box beam girders supporting pre-stressed concrete TY beams tied together with a reinforced concrete topping.
The majority of the dredged material was placed onshore to reclaim an area of Smith Embankment and protected by rock.
To protect the new quay, a 100m long rubble mound extension to the existing Albert Quay breakwater was constructed, for which a total of 130,000 tonnes of rock were used, including 60,000 tonnes of core rock, 4,500 tonne of 3/5 tonne and 25,000 tonnes of 1/3 tonne the remainder armourstone with individual weights of 10 to 16 tonnes. Rock placement was carried out by Manu Pekka fitted with a special rock grapple.
The 120m long, open piled quay will then be built along the inside of the extension to the breakwater. The orientation of the breakwater extension has been determined to minimize the reflection of waves on to the oil tanker jetty and the Princess Royal jetty on the south side of the bay.
Westminster Dredging have dredged some 100,000 cubic metres of sand, silt, clay weathered and pre-treated rock. This work was carried out by Backhoe Manu Pekka together with split hoppers Long Sand and Cork Sand.
Other associated Works included the demolition of the western end of the existing Albert Quay before the new extension was constructed.
Peterhead is a busy fishing port which meant the following matters had to be taken into consideration in the planning of the works.
- The main road to Peterhead is the A90 which is a busy single carriageway road. Road access to Smith Embankment is via the residential Bath Street which is used by local and harbour traffic. Access to the South Breakwater is via an out of town road, and so bringing construction materials to site this way reduced construction traffic through the town.
- West Quay, Merchants Quay and Albert Quay are in constant use by fishing vessels. The quays are busiest in terms of road traffic in the morning when the Fish Market is open. The South Breakwater and Princess Royal Jetty are used by the ASCO, who use the harbour as a supply base for the oil and gas industries in the North Sea. There is also a Marina on the south west side of the harbour, used by pleasure craft. There are constant vessel movements within the harbour relating to all these users. All these factors had to be taken into account in developing the method of work.