Peel seeks bidders for £300m Liverpool port job

Peel Ports has kicked off the procurement process for contractors to develop its £300m Liverpool 2 deep-water terminal, which will bring some of the world’s largest container ships to the city.

Advertisements issued this week in the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union specifically seek a principal contractor for the development and a contractor to undertake dredging, infilling and quay construction work.

Peel said it expected to advertise further packages of work during the second half of the year, including design and consultancy services.

Liverpool 2, which is expected to open for business in 2015 is the key project in the Mersey Ports Master Plan, a 20-year vision for growth and future developments at the Port of Liverpool and on the Manchester Ship Canal.

It is expected to create more than 5,000 jobs and will avoiding the vessel size restrictions of the current container terminal.

Liverpool 2 will connect directly to a number of port-centric logistics hubs along the Manchester Ship Canal via barge - resulting in the development of the UK’s first “green logistics hub” which will reduce costs, congestion and carbon footprint for businesses located in the North West.

Douglas Coleman, recently appointed project director for Liverpool 2, said the development had now reached a milestone.

“We anticipate massive interest from companies throughout the ports construction industr,” he said.

“This is a technically complex project, but eminently achievable.”

The construction programme comprises of a new 854m quay wall, the in-filling of the newly created land-mass, the dredging of a new 16.5 metre deep berthing pocket adjacent to the quay wall, the installation of ship-to-shore quay cranes and modern cantilever rail mounted gantry cranes (CRMGs) and associated supporting infrastructure works.