by Graham Black | Thu 26 Sep 2019
British Rock Delivers
SeaRock has completed a delivery of 36,000 tonnes of armour stone for principal contractor Bam Nuttall, to protect Dorset’s picturesque West Bay. The delivery was part of a £9m coastal defence project, funded by Defra, West Dorset Council and Wessex Regional Flood Defence Committee.
The stone was derived from Aggregate Industries’ super-quarry at Glensanda, Scotland, which we hope to report on in the next issue. The stone was loaded on to the vessel The Mobile Pearl, which then sailed 500 nautical miles to its anchorage position, just outside of Dorset’s Marine Conservation Area. Transhipped on to smaller vessels, this allowed the delivery to site of between 1200 and 1800 tonnes per tide over 15 days.
Aggregate Industries’ Stephen Dryden said, “Aggregate Industries had previously supplied a 26,000-tonne project to renovate and protect the harbour at Portrush in Northern Ireland, but in that instance the customer collected the rock armour. That made us think, in future, our customers would benefit from us managing the entire process. That led to us forming SeaRock, by partnering with specialist civil engineer Earlcoate, and acquiring the SeaRock 1 barge on a long-term charter.”