[230213.EN.SEA] Associated British Ports Wins Permission To Dredge Southampton Channel

ASSOCIATED British Ports (ABP) says it has received consent from the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) to dredge the Port of Southampton and hence widen and deepen the marine access.

The dredging, in Southampton Water and the Solent, is part of an extensive investment programme centred around improving the capability of the port to receive the world's largest vessels long into the future. Port authorities said the consent marks the final piece in the jigsaw of licences, consents and permissions to complete the programme.

The work will see the main navigational channel used by commercial shipping deepened to 12.6 metres for 25 nautical miles. The channel will also be widened to 100 metres in some areas to allow vessels to pass one another coming and going.

More than 23 million tonnes of material will be dredged along the route, from the Nab Channel to the east of the Isle of Wight through the central Solent and extending as far as the most northerly berth of the container terminal in the Test Estuary. The material will be taken to a licensed deposit ground, located in the English Channel to the southeast of the Isle of Wight.

ABP has proposed a series of measures to minimise the effects of the works on the environment. As well as managing water quality and monitoring sediment levels, a compensatory inter-tidal habitat scheme is in its advanced stages of completion at Cobnor Point in Chichester Harbour. The scheme will provide a new home for water voles, a protected species native to Britain's coast and inland waterways.

The consent follows hard on the heels of permission to widen the channel at Marchwood, work which is now underway.

Said Southhampton port director Doug Morrison: "This is fantastic news for the long-term future health of the port, for the 12,000 people reliant on it for work and for our customers who can be assured that we will continue to welcome their vessels to the port in the years to come."

In September 2012 ABP and DP World Southampton announced that ABP would invest GBP150 million (US$231.6 million) at Southampton's container terminal to reconstruct berths 201/202 and combine the two into a new fourth berth so the container terminal can continue to service four of the largest container ships simultaneously.

Capable of handling 16,000+ TEU vessels, the quay will be 500 metres long with 16 metres alongside, adding 600,000 TEU capacity to the terminal. The five-berth container terminal is operated by DP World Southampton.

Source : HKSG, 22.02.13.