The Grimsby River Terminal Project has been awarded the Project of the Year award by Construction News.

Graham Construction were behind the terminal, which took the award in the £10m to £50m category at a recent ceremony held in London.

The terminal, commissioned by Associated British Ports, is one of the world's largest radial arm pontoons over a fast-flowing river at the UK's busiest car handling port.

Built originally for the local fishing fleet, today it needs to accommodate the huge vessels of European car manufacturers such as Volkswagen Group and its shipments of up to 3,000 cars into the port.

GRAHAM redesigned the specification and proposed a cheaper solution in concrete, with a precast shell, saving the client around £1m on the £24m project.


The concrete solution was lighter and required fewer piles, which reduced the programme duration and safety risk associated with installing foundations over water.

During 280,000 working hours over water, there were no RIDDORS and only one three-day lost-time injury. Graham Construction also came up against a restricted three-month window in which to install 163 piles and 61 temporary piles, due to the marine licence it was subject to.

Had it not completed the work within this period window, the whole project would have been delayed by 12 months.

Responding to that pressure, in addition to adapting the pontoon design the contractor carefully programmed the work while still in the preferred bidder stage to ensure the team could deliver the job in the allotted time.

It also had to adapt to the local wildlife, employing flat glass lighting to avoid disturbing migrating birds. The design phase included extensive modelling of all credible wave conditions to ensure the pontoon would stay afloat.

Until the end of last year, the worst flood in the region had been in 1953, which left 307 dead and 40,000 homeless. The Graham Construction design was put to the test shortly after completion on 5 December 2013, when the River Humber experienced its largest tidal surge in 60 years.

This is not the only testament to the client's satisfaction with the project. Since successfully completing its first project for ABP, Graham Construction has been awarded a £120m scheme by the client.

(MH/JP)