Contract signed for Nigg Bay development

A major milestone has taken place in the development of Nigg Bay as a significant expansion of the harbour facilities at Aberdeen, UK, with the signing of a contract for the construction work.

The commencement of the £350 million project to expand facilities at Aberdeen Harbour, which was recently granted planning consent in the form of Marine Licenses and a Harbour Revision Order by the Scottish Government, has been sanctioned by the Aberdeen Harbour Board. The construction contract with its preferred bidder, Dragados UK, was signed just before Christmas with work scheduled to start this spring.

“We are delighted that, after six years of detailed planning and extensive consultation with our many stakeholders and the regulatory authorities, we are now in a position to approve the commencement of construction” said Colin Parker, Chief Executive of Aberdeen Harbour Board.

The construction work will take place at Nigg Bay which is just to the south of the current entrance to Aberdeen harbour. It will create a complete new port area for Aberdeen in three years time that will represent a step change in the marine support capabilities in Scotland. “These will transform the port’s ability to accommodate the trend for larger vessels we are witnessing across a whole range of industries.” added Parker. “The expansion will afford existing customers the opportunity to diversify and expand their interests, whilst attracting new customers and markets to the port, including up-scaled decommissioning activity, a more significant share of the available cruise vessel fleet and larger, more cost-effective commercial vessels”.

The new port which will be developed by enclosing the bay with new piers will comprise north and south piers. The new L-shaped north pier will combine its role as a protecting breakwater for the harbour whilst also acting as the main quay area in the new port. The south pier with extend out from the south extremity of Nigg Bay in a north-easterly direction and act purely as a breakwater to protect the entrance. Inside the new enclosed area extensive dredging will be needed to create adequate water depth for larger ships and new quays will be constructed along the shore line.

The dredging in the bay is estimated to require the removal of over 2 million cubic metres of material which will be mainly sand but also require the blasting of areas of rock. This will create a depth alongside of 10.5 metres at low tide within the main areas of the new harbour and in the entrance channel, with 9 metre depths along the shore side quays. These depths compare with the 8 metre depth at LWST that exists in the main entrance channel to Aberdeen harbour. It is estimated that around 660,000 cubic metres of the dredged material will be used in the construction of the north pier and other works.

The increased depths in Nigg Bay will allow a new generation of larger cruise ships to berth at Aberdeen to allow passengers to visit the variety of local attractions. Space for cruise ships has been limited in the current Aberdeen Harbour both from depth restrictions and from the focus on the offshore oil support vessels that are the main traffic using the harbour.

The construction of the north pier and the various quays around the edge of the bay will create a total of 1400 metres of new quays. The quays being constructed around the land perimeter of the bay which include the north and the west quays will be suspended deck structures and inshore from these quays there will be some re-alignment of existing roads. Some land reclamation work will also take place inshore from the north and west quays and it is estimated that the project will create an additional 125,000 square metres of lay-down area.

Fugro EMU was appointed back in 2014 to carry out an environmental impact survey of Nigg Bay and the proposed development. This report was an essential part of the submissions by the Harbour Board in order to gain approval for the development.

The outside of the north pier will be protected by rock armouring and the south pier will be constructed from rocks. To reduce the impact of waves and swell entering the harbour approximately half of the western edge of the enclosed bay will perform the role of a spending beach to absorb wave energy.

The main entrance channel will be indicated at night with a sector light on the shore and there will be secondary lights along the shore and quay areas to indicate the channel edges. The existing lighthouse at Girdle Ness which marks the headland to the north of the new port and also serves as a long range entrance light for the existing Aberdeen Harbour will serve the new harbour as well.

An independent study, commissioned by Scottish Enterprise, estimates that the development will generate an additional £1 billion per annum to the economy by 2035, and will create an additional 7,000 equivalent jobs.

“This major new chapter in the port’s history underpins the Trust Port ethos of viewing future generations as key stakeholders”, added Parker. “We believe that the infrastructure developed in Nigg Bay will encourage and support the continued prosperity of the city and region that the harbour serves and make a significant national economic contribution”.

The development, which is a Scottish Government National Planning Framework (3) Project and is scheduled to be completed by 2020, was welcomed by the Minister for Transport and the Islands, Humza Yousaf, who said, “This is excellent news for Aberdeen and the Scottish maritime industry, as the signing of the construction contract means this nationally significant project can now get underway in earnest. The significant investment will bring jobs and business to Aberdeen, supporting the local and national economy. The historic harbour will be transformed to accommodate larger vessels, opening up potential new revenue streams and offering customers world-class marine support facilities.”