In a change to our more normal winter schedule we started the new year with a jetty demolition project at Sandbanks for the National Trust. The Jetty had been used since 1996 (roughly 30 years) as a landing stage for passenger and small cargo vessels traveling to and from  Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour. The Jetty had actually been originally constructed using recycled marine hardwood timbers from local sea defence structures, and was ahead of its time in terms of sustainability.

 

 Unfortunately, after nearly 30 years of service, and with timber being a natural product, some parts of the structure had become significantly deteriorated in places, and to add to this issue, in November 2024 there was a sudden shock, when part of the Jetty collapsed as a large area of the sandy seabed washed away, and was no longer supporting the jetty in places.  A decision was made by the Trust to remove the Jetty, which will hopefully accelerate plans to install a new replacement Jetty with an enhanced design to align with their current and future needs.

Our extremely versatile, shallow draft workboat STOUR  was used to undertake the demolition and removal works, aided by its 14m deck crane.

Director Dan Jenkins commented on the progress of the works on site:

“Some of the piles literally fell out or fell over when disconnected from the rest of the structure! A few piles remained more firmly in the bed, but using the powerful 68tm deck crane on the STOUR, and thanks to the non-cohesive sandy sediments, we were able to extract these without issue“.

Overall, the project was completed much quicker than expected, which resulted in a significant saving being passed on to the client! All of the Hardwood timbers removed are being repurposed on Brownsea Island for other projects, which meets the Trust’s sustainability goals.

 

The large, spacious 100m² deck area on STOUR was ideal for laying down and transporting all the timbers removed from the structure, and the vessels remotely operated, self-elevating spud legs, coupled with twin azimuth thrusters made quick work of precise, repositioning around the works site, which was especially beneficial as it can be an area of fast flowing tidal currents.

If you have a requirement for marine operations in shallow or near shore projects, please feel free to get in touch to see where we can help.