Parking lost for 12 weeks as cars make way for boats
More than 100 North Beach three-hour parking spaces will be changed to 10-hour spaces for possibly the next 12 weeks, while parking on the East Arm is suspended.
Parking will be taken off the arm from Monday while significant pontoon upgrades are carried out to the QEII Marina.
This will enable the removal of the current D and E pontoons, the construction and installation of the new ones, and the storage of some vessels which are currently moored to them.
Traffic & Highways Services will be temporarily re-zoning three central blocks – 114 spaces – of three-hour parking at North Beach to a 10-hour time limit while the East Arm is closed.
Guernsey Ports is aiming to return parking that is no longer required as the project progresses.
The £1.4m. replacement of the pontoons will provide infrastructure upgrades for some of the largest vessels in the QEII Marina.
The majority of the 130 vessels that currently have a berth on D and E are being relocated to other locations in St Peter Port marinas.
However, around 20 motor cruisers in the region of 12-16 metres long will need to be craned out of the QEII and stored temporarily on stands on the East Arm.
Suppliers Walcon Marine are expected to ship the new galvanised steel mooring pontoons into the island later this month.
These pontoons will measure around 500 metres.
As part of the project, the current pontoons will be removed, the concrete piles which support them will be reinforced, and there will be a phased installation of the new pontoons.
‘The East Arm will be used to store boats, pontoons and provide sufficient, safe working space for the project, which will involve regular use of heavy machinery and the phased removal and replacement of mooring pontoons,' said Guernsey Ports head of operations Jerome Davis.
‘For operational reasons and the close proximity of D and E pontoons, the East Arm of North Beach is the most suitable location for this.’
The D and E pontoons replacement is part of a significant programme of investment in the QEII, much of which dates back to the construction of the marina in the 1980s.
