Worthing Pier has reopened thanks to the efforts of Worthing Borough Council engineers, maintenance teams and contractors.

The pier had to be closed on safety grounds on 9th October 2024 after a number of its supporting piles in the seabed suffered damage caused by severe weather.

Since then teams from the council and its contractors have worked closely together to design, develop and install an interim support structure that means the pier can be used again safely.

The pier was forced to temporarily close the pier last month, and the council immediately began working with specialist engineers to identify what needed to be done to reopen it fully as soon as possible.

-- Advertisement --

A solution was developed that involved the installation of a new steel support structure running the full width of the pier, to take on the role of the existing cast iron piles that had been damaged and were no longer able to do their job effectively.

The initial phase of the work could only be completed safely from the beach. This meant that the contractors could only operate during spring low tides, when the sea was out far enough for the beach to be fully accessible.

As spring low tides only last for about a week in every month, this meant the project could have extended into December or even January, with the pier having to remain closed. Instead, by working day and night and making excellent early progress, the teams developed a new approach where the final part of the work could be completed from above, using scaffolding on the pier.