9:30pm Thursday 7th January 2010
By Alex Willmott
A ROSSENDALE company has secured a £1.5m contract to carry out a major project in dangerous Spanish waters.
Bacup-based Pennine, part of the Balfour Beatty Ground Engineering Group, has begun to install 1,953 vibro stone columns to strengthen the seabed in Algeciras port.
The Rossendale engineers have been pushed to the limit due to the port’s typical adverse weather conditions and large sea swells.
Work is being carried out to allow an oil pipeline under the water and has proven to be a test for the Rossendale groundwork experts.
Pennine managing director Arwel Williams said: “Working in water depths of between 18m and 30m provides a number of considerable challenges.
“Correctly locating the placement of the columns would also have been difficult due to the operation of the vibroflot clouding up the water and reducing visibility.
“We overcame this problem by fitting the crane with a Global Positioning System that allows the operator to precisely locate each stone column position.
“The positioning of the barges is perhaps one of the biggest challenge as the length of the vibroflot is greater than the sea depth at certain points of the harbour.”
The Bacup staff have been rewarded for their high standards and have been chosen to carry out the second phase of the project fitting the pipeline to the quay wall.
Since Valley-based Pennine launched in 1989 it has gained international recognition and now has an annual turnover of £17.5m.
To date, the company has completed more than 30 projects worldwide and has recently been given contracts in South America and China.
Mr Williams said: “With a large number of new ports or port extensions currently in development to cope with increases in shipping traffic and ever bigger container ships the department is quickly developing a wealth of knowledge. “
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