Walcon Marine expands Shoreham Port’s leisure boat berths

Walcon Marine has completed a two-stage project at Shoreham Port. This saw the complete replacement of an existing marina after many years of service, together with the installation of a brand new facility in a freshly dredged area a short distance away.

The works followed an earlier project in the spring of 2020 when Walcon installed a heavy-duty waiting pontoon outside the port’s lock gates to serve as a standby berth for the workboats that escort commercial vessels in and out of the harbour.

The new facility, made up of three piers connected to a back walkway, was built first. Walcon’s Wizard piling barge drove the piles before the pontoons were installed. Thirteen finger pontoons plus hammerheads at the end of each pier, and additional alongside berthing on the walkway, delivered 43 berths for boats up to 10m in length.

Shoreham Port’s Lady Bee Marina was dismantled and transported to Southampton for disposal. Piles were driven for the new facility using the same three piers plus back walkway configuration on a larger scale. Thiry two fingers plus hammerheads created a total of 82 berths, 68 for Shoreham Port and 14 for the adjacent Sussex Yacht Club.

The old pontoons were removed by water. The new infrastructure was brought in by road from the Walcon factory. Despite the challenges posed by Covid-19 over the course of the year, the works were finalised by the autumn.

“The new pontoons have weathered very well in the recent storms and we have received excellent feedback from our leisure users,” says Julian Seaman, harbour master at Shoreham Port.