ABP Pilots Get Stairway To Heaven!

An understanding of the practicalities of marine engineering, along with a keen eye for problem solving, was key to securing Humber Work Boats (HWB) and HBPW a key contract from Associated British Ports (ABP).

ABP issued an exemplar design indicating the functional requirement for two proposed pilot structures they wanted delivering.

Senior Partner, Paul Withers, takes up the story: “Large vessels travelling up the Humber generally require the assistance of a pilot, with detailed knowledge of the river and local environment, to safely guide them into the Port of Grimsby .

“However, before pilots can assist any visiting ship Master, he or she must first be ‘delivered’ to the bridge of the larger vessel, and this is achieved courtesy of a pilot boat, which looks something like the RNLI might use in an ocean rescue situation!”

But, when not working, these smaller, robust pilot boats have to be moored somewhere and, historically, they have been kept in Grimsby Dock…..which is fine until things go wrong.

“In order to get out of the harbour and into the main estuary – where larger vessels await assistance – pilot boats have to negotiate lock gates. But what if these gates fail for any reason? Quite simply pilots become stranded, large vessels can’t move and shipping operations potentially grind to a halt.”

Recognising the problem, ABP decided to construct pilot boat moorings ‘outside’ the lock gates and in a section of the estuary itself. And it was here that HBPW’s experience and innovative thinking came into its own.

“Humber Work Boats asked HBPW for a tender design of the pilot structures. However, upon examination of ABP’s exemplar design we noticed a key deficiency in that it was not possible for pilot boat personnel to exit from the vessel at any tide level, a challenge that none of the other competitor tenders had picked up.”

Using this as a benchmark Paul Withers – principal lead on the design – came up with a structure featuring a series of staircases and intermittent landings, meaning that pilots could access or enter their boat at any time of the day or state of the tide.

“Apparently opinion was canvassed from pilots and our design was ratified as a practical solution, winning us and HWB the contract.”

Previously a similar problem was addressed by HBPW at Immingham Docks where floating berth pontoons were constructed in the River Humber in order to prevent tugboats becoming ‘trapped’ within Immingham Docks.

“Undoubtedly this marine experience was not only key to spotting potential design problems at Grimsby,” added Paul, “but was also instrumental in winning us the work.”

Client                           Associated British Ports
Contractor                    Humber Work Boats Ltd