30.09.08
£6 MILLION INVESTMENT IN INTER MODAL TRANSPORT
AT ABERDEEN HARBOUR
The expansion of inter modal transport facilities to handle increasing activity at Aberdeen Harbour has received a double boost with the opening of a
major facility at Aberdeen Harbour Board’s Waterloo yard and the award of a contract for additional rail sidings there.
As part of a £1.5 million project, the Harbour Board has awarded a contract to Trackwork for the installation of two new sidings at Waterloo, with the work
scheduled for completion by spring, 2009. Each 300 metres long, they will connect to an existing branch line and to the national rail network.
The port currently has two rail sidings at Waterloo, used for the increasing regional and national distribution of imported slurry for the paper industry.
Captain Ray Shaw, the Harbour Board's Operations Director and Harbour Master, said: "There has been an encouraging response from port users, including the
offshore oil and gas industry, to the plans for additional sidings which will see more shipments delivered to-and-from the port by rail."
"Combined with the availability of an extensive new facility for marshalling and storage of cargo, the Waterloo yard will make a significant contribution
as an interface between shipping, rail and road transport."
The 16,000 square metre surfaced yard has been completed at a cost of more than £4 million, with Mott MacDonald as consulting engineers, and the
work undertaken by Hunter Construction. With its flexible lay-out design, the multi-user yard will accommodate a range of activities.
Record traffic at the port means it now handles more than 5 million tonnes of cargo and more than 24 million gross tonnes of shipping annually. Figures
for the first six months of 2008 showed the harbour had its busiest half-year yet.
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