We have discussed the dredging of the harbour entrance at length internally and we were looking forward to possibly undertaking dredging work in this area of Pwllheli harbour during August.
However, despite significant work having been undertaken especially with a new HRA I am now informed (last minute) that stabilizing wires will need to be attached to the dredging plant in order to ensure stability of the dredger whilst dredging. I understand that the wires would need to be attached to both sides of the channel.
Had I been aware of this requirement beforehand I would have possibly approached this work differently.
Given that stabilizing wires have not previously been used by Royal Smals in Pwllheli I had assumed (obviously very wrongly) that such wires would not be required for work to dredge the channel and harbour entrance.
Whilst noting comments from Royal Smals that it would be possible to drop the wires if a vessel needed to navigate the channel I am of the opinion that such requests would undermine and disrupt the dredging operation significantly.
The number of vessel movements in the channel during the month of August is significant, especially in good weather and at weekends. It is almost impractical to expect a dredger to undertaken productive work with such significant number of traffic movements. Disruption to the dredging operation would be very high.
I have also discussed the matter with my colleague Will, the Harbour Manager who shares our observation that the number of traffic movements would be high and disruption to the dredging plant would be almost non productive.
This is most frustrating and disappointing especially after having dedicated significant time to the project. We are now working towards placing land based plant in this area to move material higher up the bank without the need for lorries.
I am most disappointed to convey such negative and frustrating news.
Barry Davies
Maritime & Country Parks Officer