RNLI Selsey Demolition Project in Full Swing

Work to demolish a now redundant lifeboat station on the West Sussex coast has moved into the marine phase following the arrival of a jack-up barge.

Mackley, working on behalf of the RNLI, started the demolition last month following the completion of a new lifeboat station in Selsey – rendering the existing building surplus to RNLI requirements.

The jack-up barge, along with a smaller ‘muck-away’ barge and a tug, arrived on site at Selsey on Saturday (17 June) having been towed from Southampton.

Barry Holt, Mackley’s Project Manager for the scheme, said: “Works are going to plan and we are scheduled to be complete by mid-July, depending on the weather. To date we have removed a number of stub and box piles, cleared asbestos from the site, removed scaffolding and isolated the electric supply.”

“We are also required to clear the seabed of debris and a team of divers is tagging items on the sea-bed in preparation for their removal,” added Barry Holt.

This is not the first project Mackley has carried out at the coastal village of Selsey. An earlier project at Selsey West Beach extended the residual life of 1.25 km of existing defenses. The project involved the placement of approximately 37,000m3 of shingle along the frontage, and repairs to existing timber groynes and the reinforced concrete seawall.

The multi-award winning Medmerry Managed Realignment Scheme, completed at Selsey in November 2013, included the largest realignment of open coast in the UK.