The Channel Island’s Civil Engineering Contractor
'Stitching the Past' St Aubins Harbour Project to be Reviewed at International Conference
The stabilising work carried out by Geomarine on the North and South Pier at St Aubin’s Harbour and St Aubin’s Fort Breakwater will be the subject of a paper to be presented at an international conference this autumn.
The paper will be reviewed at the Institution of Civil Engineers’ seventh Coastal Management Conference in Belfast on 15 November 2011. The annual event, which is attended by 200 of the UK’s leading coastal, estuary, marine, harbour and hydraulic engineers, geochemists, coastal policy officers, coastal and flood defence specialists, operators of marine facilities and renewable energy specialists amongst others, is themed ‘Innovative Coastal Zone Management: Sustainable Engineering for a Dynamic Coast’.
‘It is a great honour to have our successful project discussed at such a high level conference,’ said Phil Horsley, Geomarine. ‘The project was a complex one which required us to use a technique called stitching in order to manage the stabilisation of the 360 year old breakwater and pier. It required the skills of a specialist team to develop such a technique for this project. Retaining the harbour’s heritage was key and the result is a system of supports which cannot be seen alongside the masonry.’
The stabilisation project, which commenced in August 2010 and took 11 months, saw local civil and marine contractor, Geomarine, work closely with designers, Arup Rothwell and Cintec, the firm that manufactured the bespoke stitching anchors. This was the first time that anchors of this type have been used in Jersey.
The paper, drafted by Steve Hold of Arup Rothwell, outlines the difficulties faced by the designers and contractor in finding the correct stabilising solution. It also reviews the historical and tidal factors that caused the deterioration of the structures and previous unsuccessful attempts to stop the failure of the masonry. The success of Geomarine in strengthening these difficult structures in order to preserve them for future generations is celebrated in this paper along with outlining the many challenges faced and overcome.
Steve Hold of Arup, who will be presenting the paper at the conference, will be in Jersey on 14th September to give a presentation to local engineers ahead of his speaking date in Belfast.
September 2011
