Works will allow bigger boats to use Lochranza

Brodick pier contractor George Leslie Ltd has won another contract – this time to carry out improvement works at Lochranza ferry terminal.

Owners Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) has announced the £105,000 contract has been awarded to the Barrhead-based civil engineering contractor after a competitive tendering process earlier this year.

The project, which is expected to start by the end of the month, is designed to enable the safe berthing of larger, deeper-draught vessels at the pier in future.

The work, which will last between two and four weeks, involves dredging a berthing pocket adjacent to the pier and making modifications to two of the existing fender units.

While the work is ongoing, George Leslie Ltd needs to create a contractors’ site compound and this will be situated within the six parking bays immediately adjacent to the reconstructed seawall, to the eastern extent of the ferry terminal. Unfortunately, members of the public will not be able to park in these bays for the duration of the construction works.

The contractor would normally use the marshalling area for the site compound but, as the work is taking place during the busy summer period, this would have caused more disruption and inconvenience to ferry users than the suspension of the parking bays.

Dredged deposits will be temporarily stockpiled on the foreshore and will be loaded onto and removed by trucks in as few journeys as possible, with the material being re-used on Arran.

Ramsay Muirhead, head of civil engineering at CMAL, said: ‘The work we are undertaking will give greater flexibility to the number of vessels that can dock in Lochranza.

‘We apologise for any inconvenience experienced and will keep disruption to a minimum and complete the dredging as quickly as possible.’