St Peter Port Dredging Works About to Begin

The maintenance dredging work, which will improve a number of areas in St Peter Port Harbor that are used primarily by visiting vessels, is about to begin, according to the States of Guernsey.

The operation will focus on the Victoria Marina, between the Albert and Victoria (Crown) Piers, and two areas adjacent to the marina entrance in what is known as ‘the pool’, reported the States of Guernsey.

Up to approximately 23,000 cubic meters of material is expected to be removed from these areas, and will be deposited in deeper water elsewhere in the harbor.

Dredging operations were last carried out in St Peter Port Harbor in 2015 and 2016. The first was to enable the installation of a pontoon at the end of the Albert Pier. The second increased the depth or water at the main freight berth used by lift on, lift off vessels.

Prior to these recent operations, the last significant dredging of the harbor was in 1989, when the North Beach and QE2 Marina were constructed. There has been gradual build-up of silt since then, and surveys have been carried out to identify those areas most affected.

Harbormaster Captain Chad Murray said that silting build-up was a natural process, and was to be expected over time. “The dredging operation will address priority areas where these could start to have an adverse effect on harbor users.”

“Recent surveys have confirmed a build-up of material has reduced the depth of navigable water in a number of areas. This dredging operation will focus on some of these, to provide better access for larger vessels, less restricted by the tidal range, and allow us to optimize the pontoon configuration, which could provide revenue opportunities,” Murray added.

“At the same time we have a deep recess in the outer pool area in excess of 10m deep at chart datum, where we can deposit all the excavated material. We have used this approach previously and subsequent monitoring has shown no significant redistribution of the deposited material,” Murray said.

The work is expected to last six weeks, and has been timed so that is complete ahead of the main visitor season which starts at Easter.

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