Environmental and Safety Challenges in the Restoration of Seahouses Main Pier

Seahouses, a coastal town in Northumberland, northeast England, historically developed around its harbour, which provides a focal point for the local community, visitors and businesses. Pleasure boats launch from Seahouses Main Pier for trips to the Farne Islands National Nature Reserve and the town is considered one of the principal tourist attractions in the county. The design of much-needed restoration works to the Main Pier ensured the environmental acceptability of the proposed solutions within a highly sensitive marine environment hosting numerous National, European and International nature conservation designations, through early and continuous dialogue with the regulators. However, the process of gaining all necessary environmental approvals was not straightforward and caused unexpected delay and cost to the project. The disproportionate scale of regulation in relation to the extremely small scale of impact (in terms of plan area footprint of the works encroaching on the seabed) is discussed. The Client, Designer and Contractor worked jointly to offer efficiencies through Value Engineering to reduce overall scheme costs to affordable levels. This partnership also ensured that safe and buildable solutions were developed, and safeguarded the highly-valued marine environment during the works. Innovative construction techniques, such as hydro-demolition as an underwater construction method, were used to help accelerate programme and ensure that completion occurred within a tight construction window, needing completion before the arrival of over-wintering birds in winter 2019. During the works, over 150,000 tourists were safely marshalled through the site to pleasure boats launching from the pier for visits to the Farne Islands.