Leading Marine Civil Engineering Contractor, Red7Marine, has recently been involved in delivering piling scope as a part of marine infrastructure upgrades taking place ABP’s Port of Lowestoft.
In 2021, Associated British Ports (ABP) announced its plans to develop the Lowestoft Eastern Energy Facility (LEEF), which will see significant improvements being made to the marine facilities at Lowestoft’s Outer Harbour.
In 2022, ABP appointed Mclaughlin & Harvey, to design and build ABP’s vision for the facility, which is to provide a base in Lowestoft to meet the offshore energy industry’s current and future demands, ensuring the port can accommodate the next generation of offshore support vessels. The facility will provide a site that is suitable for Operations & Maintenance (O&M) activities in addition to quayside suitable for construction support activities.
Red7Marine was responsible for the main quay wall piling elements as a part of the harbour upgrades, which involved the installation of 145 tubular piles and 140 sheet piles along the length of the quayside.
The Red7Marine team completed a proof dig of the site at the back end of 2023, using its Haven SeaStabler equipped with a 38t long reach, ahead of the piling operations commencing. The SeaStabler was also used for UXO investigations along the CTV pile locations.
In-house fabrication
Red7Marine’s engineering team have been involved throughout the lifecycle of the project, designing temporary works, and modifying one of the company’s existing piling gates. This involved working across multiple work fronts installing rollers, gussets, pad eyes and tee
support and a separate CTV platform piling gate. All fabrication works were carried out by Red7Marine’s in-house fabrication team at its Cliff Quay workshop facility at the Port of Ipswich. The extension to the gate provided an extra 2m in height and 6m in length and can
accommodate 3no. tubular piles at a time.
Kristen Branford, Managing Director at Red7Marine comments: “We are delighted to have finished the quay wall piling operations as a part of ABP’s Lowestoft Eastern Energy Facility project, working close to home on this important investment for the region which will mean the port, and therefore the town, will be able to continue to grow as a thriving centre for supporting the offshore energy industry.”
‘Highly recommend Red7Marine’
David Baskin, Senior Contracts Manager at McLaughlin & Harvey comments: “Red7Marine was contracted by McLaughin & Harvey to deliver the installation of combi-wall and the CTV piling for our Lowestoft project.
“They acted professionally throughout and delivered the project to a high standard and ahead of programme. I would have no hesitation in employing Red7Marine in the future and I would highly recommend them to deliver marine piling packages.”
McLaughlin & Harvey’s remaining workscopes will continue over the next few months. When complete, the project will provide berthing space for simultaneous use by three SOVs and deliver up to eight acres of flexible storage and marshalling area. In addition, it will create around 5,000 sqft of new office space with direct quayside access.
