DEME/Laing O’Rourke JV to build London Gateway Port

News – August 22, 2008

A contract has been awarded to a joint venture (JV) of Laing O’Rourke Infrastructure Limited and Dredging International (DEME Group) for the execution of a major new port development project on the river Thames in the UK.

The London Gateway Port project, as it is called, is located at the former Shell Haven installations downstream of the City of London.

The work will be executed for London Gateway Port Limited (part of DP World) for a total amount of £400 million (€505 million).

The work has to be completed in a period of 60 months, that is, by mid-2013.

A significant number of heavy-duty dredgers from the DEME fleet will be involved in the project.

The new London Gateway Port will be a state-of-the-art fully automated deepwater container port. The entire project (quay walls, superstructure, dredging and reclamation, connecting road systems) will be funded by the client DP World.

The works include a quay wall of 1,300m and a new oil jetty of 300m, to be built by Laing O’Rourke with Bachy-Solétanche as sub-contractor.

The dredging and reclamation works include some 30 million m3 of capital dredging in the River Thames over a distance of approximately 100km.

After an intensive period of preparation works (soil investigations and the set-up of an impressive river monitoring system), Dredging International will actaully start dredging in early 2009.

An important quantity of gravel will be dredged and commercialised – an interesting opportunity for DEME’s marine aggregates specialist DBM.

Other hydraulic works involving DEME specialists are the construction of bunds, slope protection works and the installation of erosion protection by means of GOSA-mattresses (Open Fibrous Stone Asphalt).