Walcon Marine has completed a life-extension project on a Harbour Master’s jetty on one of the busiest and most popular recreational harbours in the UK, the River Hamble on Southampton Water. The River Hamble Harbour Authority is responsible for navigational safety on the river and the authority’s major jetty facility is next to the Harbour Office at Warsash.
Like most harbour authorities, it aims to plan as far ahead as it can to make best use of its capital resources and to keep the need for increases in harbour dues to a minimum.
“With an important bridge structure needing repairs to supporting piles, the Harbour Authority approached a number of contractors to explore different repair options,” says Jason Scott, Harbour Master of the River Hamble. “The challenge ultimately was how to generate working access to the ten supporting piles without removing the bridge above, which was in good repair.”
Walcon’s winning proposal involved an imaginative solution; jacking up consecutive sections of the bridge using a temporary beam while cutting away wooden timbers to expose the old piles. This allowed the re-sleeving of the existing piles in 18mm steel before capping and the welding of newly fabricated steel crossheads. Moving the beam incrementally allowed each of the five pairs of two to be re-sleeved in turn.
“The result is effectively a new bridge with a lifespan we believe of around another 50 years for a fraction of the cost of a new structure,” concludes Jason Scott.
Other recent jetty projects by Walcon Marine include the replacement of a 90-metre jetty for a private client and a private tender jetty within Hythe Marina Village.
