Rothesay Harbour stabilisation work completes this week well ahead of schedule and on budget.
Estimated to finish in February 2025, the project will now wind up this coming Friday (20 December).
The £1.9m works, carried out by Shearwater Marine Services, will support the future of the pier by enabling it to accommodate the larger, more powerful vessels than the pier was original built to withstand.
Local quarry – Ambrisbeg - supplied concrete and carried out the re-surfacing works on the pier deck and linkspan access road.
Works included:
- Constructing a toe (retaining) wall at the base of the original wall to provide stability to the main harbour structure. This will extend 143m from the eastern edge of the harbour wall to the overnight ferry berth;
- The toe wall will prevent any potential sliding or further loss of fine materials from the sea bed behind the original wall; and
- Repair to the surface of the harbour where there has been visible settlement.
Mainly carried out at night to minimised disruption and maximise diving time, works were largely uninterrupted by poor weather.
We were able to work around key economically important weekends, such as Butefest and the Highland Games, to allow the ferries to run a full timetable during those weekends. Even unavoidable incidents, like losing five days’ work when the Rothesay ferry was unable to berth at Greenock, did not affect progress.
Whilst the project was live, the site team from AECOM and Shearwater Marine Services visited Rothesay Joint Campus and explained the project to both primary and secondary classes. The team provided a Lego model of the sea wall to demonstrate what had happened to the wall and how it was being repaired. They also brought along diving gear and explained the type of work that the divers carried out.
During the work, divers discovered some of the original timbers that would have been part of the pier structure when it was first built. The divers recovered these and all have been recycled for use locally.
Councillor Ross Moreland, chair of the Harbour Board, said: “Rothesay Harbour plays an enormous part in the daily lives of Bute residents, the local economy and the tourism industry. This work helps to secure its future for years to come, protecting its structural integrity and enabling it to accept vessels beyond its original capacity.
“Our thanks to Bute residents for their patience, to our contractors for delivering a complex programme on time, and to CalMac for working closely with us throughout the process.
You can see details of how the project developed on the .