19 August 2014
A six-month building programme which will improve the layout and facilities around Albert Pier, St Helier Harbour, is due to start on 22 September.
The work will involve:
- removing the old linkspan bridge, freeing the area for potential additional berthing
- improving the visitor / waiting pontoons that run alongside Albert Pier
- installing a new pedestrian bridge to the pontoons
- improving facilities for the RNLI and commercial operators
- strengthening the St Helier Marina retaining wall
It has been timed to start after the annual dragon boat race, on Saturday 20 September, and to be completed before the Barclays Jersey Boat Show in early May 2015.
Visiting yachtsmen to use La Collette temporarily
From 22 September, and throughout the project, the holding berths 4 and 5 will be out of use (except for the all-weather RNLI lifeboat) and marine leisure vessels will use La Collette Pontoon D instead.
Ports of Jersey group operations director Stephen Driscoll said “In recent months we have engaged widely with our many key stakeholders in and around the Albert Pier vicinity and they share our enthusiasm and commitment to improving a much valued area of the harbour.”
The scheme is being project managed by specialist consultants Marina Projects Ltd and following a States tender process, Geomarine were appointed to undertake the work, which has a £3m budget allocated from the Ports of Jersey trading fund and not through government funding.
Linkspan bridge
Engineering inspections have confirmed that the old linkspan bridge, which was installed in the 1970s, is at the end of its servicable life. It was part of the Albert Pier ro-ro car ferry terminal, which was no longer used after the construction of Elizabeth Harbour in the late 1980s. The bridge currently provides pedestrian access to pontoons on Berths 4 and 5, which are primarily used as visitor holding berths for marine leisure vessels.
Removing the linkspan bridge will enable a new and improved direct access pedestrian bridge to be built, and will also free an area for potential additional berthing facilities in the future.
Pontoon improvements
As well as improving the pontoons for visitors and commercial operators, the work will provide better facilities for the RNLI. A new berthing configuration will mean the inshore and offshore lifeboats are berthed together and reached directly from the Albert Pier via its new access point.
St Helier Marina retaining wall
During the project, improvements will also be carried out on the concrete capping beam and sheet pile wall that retains the water in St Helier Marina.
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