Aberdeen Harbour Expansion Gets Green Light

zoomIllustration; Image Courtesy: Aberdeen Harbour Aberdeen Harbour is moving forward with its GBP 350 million expansion project (USD 432 million) as the citys harbor board decided to sanction the investment.  The Scottish Government recently granted planning consent to the project in the form of Marine Licenses and a Harbour Revision Order. The construction contract with its preferred bidder, Dragados UK, is due to be formalized at a signing ceremony on December 20, 2016. The construction is expected to commence in early 2017, according to Aberdeen Harbour. Following a detailed engagement process, Aberdeen Harbour Board, in partnership with Dragados UK, a main contractor, will develop facilities over the next three years that will represent a step change in the marine support capabilities in Scotland. These will transform the port’s ability to accommodate the trend for larger vessels we are witnessing across a whole range of industries, the port said. The development is a Scottish Government National Planning Framework (3) Project and is scheduled to be completed by 2020. The new facilities will include 1,400 meters of new quay, with a water depth of up to 10.5 meters and will create an additional 125,000 square meters of lay-down area. Funding arrangements for the project incorporated commercial borrowing from the European Investment Bank, and funding from the Aberdeen City & Region Deal. Support for the project’s feasibility study was also received from Scottish Enterprise and from the 2013 Annual Programme Call of the European Commission’s Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) Programme.