Cumbria County Council are seeking to award a tender for the design, build, launch, installation, commissioning, and acceptance of the new ferry, and associated elements.

The land-locked nature of Lake Windermere introduces several requirements and constraints specific to the new ferry.

The new ferry is to have increased car capacity, increased operating capability, improved passenger facilities and is to be fully electrically powered from onboard batteries.

The new ferry is to be a cable ferry; propelled by pulling herself along a pair of steel wire cables installed between the two slipways.

The east slipway is located at Ferry Nab, Bowness-on- Windermere and the west slipway at Far Sawrey and the ferry links the two parts of the B5285 on either side of Lake Windermere.

The procurement process will see shipyards across the country invited to submit their ideas and designs for the new ferry. The aim is to place an order with the successful shipyard in the autumn for delivery of the new ferry in spring 2024.

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Hull City Council has published a decision record that will allow the council to open a tender to construct a permanent wet dock for the Spurn Lightship.

A successful funding bid from National Highways for £1,044,725 will enable works to take place. The main works to create the new dock will be the sinking of five piles to create mooring points for the ship.

The restoration of the Spurn Lightship is part of Hull Maritime, a locally led project funded by Hull City Council and National Lottery Heritage Fund. Work to restore the lightship will be complete this autumn and the ship will move to a temporary position on Hull Maritime until the new dock is completed in early 2023.

The procurement exercise will open in the coming weeks, with work expected to start on site in the autumn.

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A joint venture between Kier Group and Royal BAM Group nv will now refurbish Devonport’s 10 Dock, the first part of a £2bn overhaul of facilities at the UK’s largest dockyard.

Babcock International Group Plc, which operates the yard, appointed Kier BAM Joint Venture (KBJV) after previously announcing a series of major infrastructure projects at Devonport.

During the next 10 years new facilities will be developed at the site to meet the evolving requirements of the Royal Navy.

The project includes the redevelopment of a dry dock for nuclear submarines alongside the demolition of existing buildings and construction of new ones to support the Royal Navy’s submarine maintenance programme. The scope includes all mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, control and automation technology in the new dock building, a new dividing headwall within the dock, ground anchors, and new service subways to support submarines in their dry dock positions.

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Associated British Ports (ABP) is on the hunt for a contractor to design and construct roll-on/roll-off (RORO) terminal and marine infrastructure at the Port of Immingham in the Humber Estuary.

ABP has developed the concept design under its newly establish professional services framework and is going to market under a negotiated procedure to bring the design and build contractor onboard early.

The £90M contract will be awarded to a lead consortium who will work under a two-stage contracting method. The first stage will see the further development of the design in a collaboration between ABP and the contractor, while the second stage will see the completion of the remaining design and construction works.
The work will include design and construction of:

-Up to three new outer harbour berths to serve RORO and ROPAX vessels
-Associated marine infrastructure including finger pier, pontoon, link-span and jetty approach structures
-Landside development including freight and passenger vehicle parking and highways infrastructure over a minimum of 18.5ha
-A new passenger terminal building, including an engineering workshop and all associated incidental works

The contract duration is 26 months.

The deadline for expressions of interest is 15 August and invitations to tender are expected to be sent around 21 September.

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The National Maritime SME Maritime Working Group’s objective is to help drive trade and growth for us all and give a bigger voice for UK maritime SMEs.

One of the groups key priorities is the measurement of the amount and value of business being generated via National Maritime enterprise and supply chain development activities.

Harland & Wolff announcement that it has been awarded a second contract worth approximately £9.6 m by Cory for the fabrication of twelve barges, means that in June and July of this year alone, National Maritime has directly supported and help secure the generation over £74m worth of business for UK maritime industries. 

Firstly a huge congratulations to our team and thank you to our SME Maritime Working Group Champions.

Secondly, Congratulations to John Wood and Harland & Wolff for the 2nd win.

Finally thank you also, Fran Comerford-ColeCory for instructing us to help you identify UK suitable build partners.

National Maritime is the UK’s largest maritime network. Our objective is to drive trade and growth for all.

We work with the sector to help identify ways to help meet their business needs. We help with consulting on new products or service challenges and fostering business growth and development. We help with setting up contract research projects or collaborating on joint ventures. We provide supply chain expertise and support to operating companies relating to the design, tendering of work packages, the selection of equipment and the assessment and appointment of contractors for shoreside and seagoing projects.

Please contact us for more information.

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The Devon shipyard rescued from closure has been boosted by a £55m UK Ministry of Defence deal to refurbish a minesweeper. 

It is the biggest announced contract for the Appledore site, where vessels have been built for nearly two centuries, since it reopened in 2020 under the ownership of Harland & Wolff (H&W). 

Appledore was previously operated by Babcock but closed in March 2019. The deal involves the refurbishment of a British ship, HMS Quorn, which was decommissioned by the Royal Navy In 2017. 

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UK ports are threatening Westminster with legal action unless they are compensated for the millions they have spent building new border control facilities that may never be used.

Ports across the UK have built border control posts designed to carry out the post-Brexit physical spot checks on European plant and animal products (fruit, veg, meat, fish, cheese and timber) that were due to come into force from 1 July 2022.

But last April the UK government announced that these new UK-EU post-Brexit border control rules would be put on hold until at least the end of next year amid concerns about the cost-of-living crisis.

The UK’s second busiest cross-Channel Portsmouth has said that its £25m temperature-controlled border control post was finished on time for the July deadline and is ready to go, but the state-of-the-art new facility to be staffed by 67 officials is currently standing empty and may never be used.

Portsmouth Port is owned by Portsmouth City Council and the new facility’s ongoing operating costs are causing a serious drain on resources and forcing the council to cut other local services.

Consequently, Portsmouth City Council is looking at taking legal action against the government alongside other ports.

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See Monster – the decommissioned North Sea offshore platform that is set to become one of the UK’s largest public art installations – is due to arrive in Weston by sea this week.

It comes after weeks of rumours surrounding delays over the opening of the attraction, which was due to open for the summer season.

The transformation of the platform is a world-first that aims to inspire global conversations about the repurposing of large industrial structures and design-led solutions to sustainable futures.

And the 450-tonne platform will be transported on a flatbed barge as large as a football pitch to its new home at the Tropicana, an iconic seafront landmark, and lifted by crane over the seawall onto preconstructed legs. 

The entire construction will be 35m tall – 15m taller than the Angel of the North and just 11m shy of Nelson’s Column.

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A bold new vision for an under-threat docks which would create more than 1,000 jobs has been unveiled.

Plans to retain Chatham Docks as a working site are an alternative to multi-million pound proposals for thousands of homes.

Landowners Peel L&P want to build 3,625 properties over the coming decades and are currently consulting on its own plans, which include a number of potential commercial developments.

An event showcasing a masterplan for keeping the docks open was hosted by Kelly Tolhurst in Westminster The preliminary plans centre around how the docks could be developed in order to retain the 800 jobs on the site, as well as add another 1,635 manufacturing positions.

Peel L&P previously said it believes there are between 350 and 370 jobs on site. It also says the leases for most of the businesses are due to run out in 2025, which is when it wants to shut down.

The company wants to close the docks because it says £30 million is needed to replace its lock gates, which is not financially viable.

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UK shipbuilding urged to prove its competitiveness with inward investment.

Shipyards in the UK should look to invest in their own facilities in order to give themselves the best opportunity to secure government contracts, as well as increasing their competitivity on the international space, according to Shipbuilding Tsar and UK Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace.

For decades, UK shipyards had faced a gradual decline in workshare, as a numerically shrinking Royal Navy and increased competition from European and other global facilities brought challenges that pushed many businesses to the brink. The National Shipbuilding Strategy, written by Sir John Parker and first published in 2016 and subsequently updated, offers potential solutions to revitalise the UK’s shipbuilding sector.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, appointed Shipbuilding Tsar in 2019, told the UK Defence Committee during a 5 July session that UK shipyards, both those focused towards military or commercial alike, had to invest in their own facilities in order to increase capacity, efficiencies and competitiveness.

“Some yards are ready for the future, and some aren’t,” said Wallace.

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