Marine Designs Ltd, part of A&P Group, has completed its fifth pontoon installation in Barrow.
The pontoon system was designed and built for renewable energy company Orsted and is Marine Designs’ biggest to date at approximately 135m in length and 5.5m wide.
The heavy duty concrete pontoon system is made up of six 22m sections, each weighing 140 tonnes. These pontoons are particularly suited for the berthing of the modern crew transfer vessels used in the offshore wind sector. The concrete construction is low maintenance and offers an in-water design life of more than 25 years, so that the crew transfers of technicians can continue without down-time during the wind farm’s lifelong operation.
Marine Designs provided a full design, build and installation service to the project which included task lighting, electrical and water systems and a fast fuelling system. The pontoons arrived at site part-assembled and used an innovative construction technique which involves final fit-out in water, to keep crane duties to a minimum. The pontoon for Orsted is the fifth pontoon Marine Designs has manufactured and installed.
Drystan Jones from Falmouth-based Marine Design Ltd said: “Over the last ten years Marine Designs Ltd has been the contractor of choice for crew transfer pontoons for many offshore wind farms. This latest project and our third with renewable energy company Orsted, builds on that success further and demonstrates our tried and tested product range. We now have five separate pontoon systems in Barrow and it has been a pleasure to be working in the port again.”
Marine Designs Ltd is part of A&P Group, which operates seven dry docks across four strategic locations in the UK and delivers global engineering excellence to the commercial shipping, marine, offshore wind, oil and gas, civil nuclear and defence industries. All facilities combine a rich heritage of marine engineering skills and experience, providing ship owners and energy companies with all the precision skills needed to complete the most demanding projects.
