Longest vessel in Aberdeen Harbour history docks to assist with expansion

The longest vessel to ever dock in Aberdeen Harbour has arrived to assist with the South Harbour expansion.

Aberdeen Harbour said that the 175-meter-long MV Beltnes arrived on Wednesday, May 29, to help with work on the £350 million expansion of the city’s port.

The self-discharging bulk carrier discharged 35,000 tonnes of fill material behind concrete caissons, as part of the creation of the Dunnottar Quay.

According to the harbour, the vessel will make seven return trips to South Harbour to complete the Dunnottar and Castlegate Quays.

The fill material used behind the caissons was quarried from Norway and would provide these quays with significant heavy-lift capacity, all designed to support activity associated with the onshore and offshore energy industry.

It is worth reminding that the first 6,000-tonne caisson arrived at the harbour earlier this year. The first caisson measures 50 meters long, 15 meters wide, and 16 meters deep and will be used to form the closed quay section of the development.

The caisson was set to its designated location and filled with water to sink it to the seabed, later replaced with fill material. A total of 22 caissons will form the foundations of Castlegate and Dunnottar Quays, which will be 540 and 400 meters long respectively.

The increase in scale at South Harbour will secure the harbour’s ability to allow vessels of up to 300 meters to berth alongside. The harbour expects that the opening of Aberdeen South Harbour will occur during 2020.

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