Standing room only at Pool marina survey presentation
HARBOUR surveyors were left surprised by the huge amount of interest shown in their work when there was standing room only at a presentation on the project.
Fugro is operating a jack-up barge in the Pool to gather information for the Pool marina programme team about the engineering possibilities for the area.
A presentation arranged by the Guernsey branch of the CI Group of Professional Engineers at the Guernsey Yacht Club provided an opportunity for people to go along and find out more about the work.
Interest in what Fugro Geoservices has been doing was so strong that the presentation had to be split in two to cater for the demand.
Project manager Theo Cleave was one of the two Fugro representatives taking part.
‘I thought it would be a little Yacht Club crowd, but 20 minutes before we started it was standing room only,' he said.
A decision was taken to split the audience in two, with a colleague of Mr Cleave’s doing an outdoor talk on some of the equipment they had taken along while Mr Cleave did a PowerPoint talk inside.
The two groups swapped over after each talk.
Mr Cleave said he had expected questions from people about the level of noise and restrictions to marine traffic, and was surprised a second time.
‘Everyone who came was very positive about our investigation and hungry for knowledge about the development,’ he said.
‘Lots of connections were made between ourselves and acquaintances of the locals who attended.’
Questions asked mainly involved the type of equipment used and its assembly during mobilisation.
Some people wanted to know what other projects Fugro had completed and Mr Cleave told them that the crew had completed similar works at Le Havre, Copenhagen, Portsmouth, Thurso and Invergordon.
These were carried out in the harbours while working closely with the local port authorities to provide pre-construction information to assist with the designs for various developments and dredging works.
The project is progressing well.
‘Marine projects are always difficult to predict with tide, weather, marine traffic etc. playing a major part in safe operations, however, we are on track to complete as per the original programme,’ Mr Cleave said.
Tidal conditions have proven to be the biggest challenge, particularly given the size of the Aran 250 jack-up barge and the large tidal range, he said.
But the adjustable incline access ladder in the harbour was a great benefit to allow the safe transfer of crew between day and night shifts.
Thorough planning between all the parties involved allowed Fugro to work with the changing tides to get access to shallow areas during spring tides for sufficient water depth, and deeper areas during neap tides to make sure that enough leg section was maintained above the deck of the barge.
Progress has been good and he expected the work to be completed this week.
All the teams had worked well to react dynamically to changes to such things as the scope of the drilling, depths and testing to suit the geology of the harbour and the structures they encounter.
‘Everyone on site is keen to deliver the “right” site investigation and remains flexible.’
The data collected along with physical samples will go to a geotechnical laboratory in the UK for testing after which a report will be produced for Guernsey Ports and engineers.
