A joint venture comprising BAM Nuttall and Van Oord has been awarded a contract valued at £75m by Peel Ports as part of its £300m scheme to create to new container terminal on the Mersey estuary in Liverpool. Once completed, this new facility will accommodate some of the world's largest container vessels, up to 13,500 TEU, two at a time. This new container terminal will be open for business in 2015.

The work to be carried out by the joint venture breaks down as follows: BAM Nuttall will design the quay wall and the crane rails, construct a new 854 metre quay wall, and install ship to shore quay crane rails as well as supporting infrastructure works such as the construction of new road, surfacing and fencing. Van Oord will dredge soft materials using a combination of Van Oord's water injection dredging technique and backhoe dredger Goliath, the largest backhoe dredger in Europe.

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To create the new container area, material sourced from the River Mersey will be placed with a trailing suction hopper dredger after which the berthing pocket will be dredged with a cutter suction dredger and the dredged material will be reused as fill. Vertical drains to consolidate the water-saturated subsoil and increase soil stability will be installed by Wicks, a Van Oord subsidiary. Vertical drainage will result in reduced residual settlement.

Peel Ports Programme Director, Douglas Coleman said: "The appointment of the BAM Nuttall/Van Oord JV for this crucial package of work represents a significant milestone in the delivery of the Liverpool2 project. The joint venture secured the package of work amidst an intense environment of competition. We are delighted to be working with the joint venture on this complex and challenging aspect of the project."

(CD/JP)