Commencement of a £350 million project to expand facilities at Aberdeen Harbour, which was recently granted planning consent in the form of Marine Licenses and a Harbour Revision Order by the Scottish Government, was yesterday sanctioned by Aberdeen Harbour Board. The construction contract with its preferred bidder, Dragados UK is due to be formalised at a signing ceremony today (20th December).
Following a detailed engagement process, Aberdeen Harbour Board, in partnership with Dragados UK, a main contractor, will develop facilities over the next three years that will represent a step change in the marine support capabilities in Scotland. These will transform the port’s ability to accommodate the trend for larger vessels we are witnessing across a whole range of industries.
The development, which is a Scottish Government National Planning Framework (3) Project and is scheduled to be completed by 2020, was welcomed by the Minister for Transport and the Islands, Humza Yousaf, who said: “This is excellent news for Aberdeen and the Scottish maritime industry, as the signing of the construction contract means this nationally significant project can now get underway in earnest.
Dragados UK were named as the Board’s preferred bidder in September this year, and the company announced that they plan to commence construction on site in early 2017.
The new facilities will include 1,400 metres of new quay, with a water depth of up to 10.5 metres and will create an additional 125,000 square metres of lay-down area. An independent study, commissioned by Scottish Enterprise, estimates that the development will generate an additional £1 billion per annum to the economy by 2035, and will create an additional 7,000 equivalent jobs.
Funding arrangements for the project incorporated commercial borrowing from the European Investment Bank, and funding from the Aberdeen City & Region Deal. Support for the project’s feasibility study was also received Scottish Enterprise and from the 2013 Annual Programme Call of the European Commission’s Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) Programme.