The complex engineering operation, over 24 months in the planning, saw the West Inner Gate at the Port’s Gladstone Lock replaced. Lessons learned during a similar operation in May involving the Lock’s East Inner Gate resulted in a vastly-reduced 36 hour outage. Careful timing of the outage meant that all scheduled regular shipping arrivals were able to access the dock system via Gladstone Lock as normal without disruption. The work saw the giant West Inner Gate – 16m in height and weighing 400 tonnes, removed and replaced with a fully refurbished gate.
The operation started Friday July 27 at 7am and was completed the following day, with the first vessel able to transit the Lock at 6pm. Peel Ports Mersey’s Head of Port Operations David Huck said: “The outage is the culmination of many months of planning, and we’re delighted that this major feat of engineering was completed in very good time by our contractors BAM Nuttall. “Our customers were alerted well in advance of the outage and with good planning all of our regular calls were able to be accommodated as normal, which was very important.
“The completion of these works has provided an even more reliable lock system for our customers, reducing maintenance costs and improving access for our engineering personnel. These key assets are essential to the smooth running of the Port and we envisage that these upgrades should ensure the gates are functional for many years to come.”
This latest operation at Gladstone Lock takes overall investment in this area of Liverpool’s infrastructure to £20m. Meanwhile, an earlier project in the overall refurbishment programme has been recognised with a prestigious engineering award. Work carried out last year to stabilise the Outer West Ram Pit at the Gladstone Lock River Entrance has won the North West Structural Engineering Small Project Award – with the highest score in all the categories. The award will be presented at the Annual Structural Engineering Awards in September, held in the Hilton in Manchester.