Humber Marine Control Centre

Managing operations on the UK’s busiest estuary

Supporting the creation of a new marine centre in Grimsby to control shipping on the 60km Humber estuary

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Humber Marine Control Centre Project summary

Client

Associated British Ports

Key partners

Britcon

Services provided

Project and programme management, Consult

Sectors

Ports, Transport

Locations

UK and Europe, UK North

Project timeline

Start date
January 2016
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Project story

When Associated British Ports (ABP) identified the need for a new centre to safely control shipping operations on the Humber estuary - the UK's most heavily used trading gateway - it turned to our expert project managers to deliver the facility.

The new hub brings together the vital services that ensure vessels can navigate the estuary and its ports. As the Statutory Harbour Authority for the estuary, ABP wanted to integrate the existing facilities in Grimsby and replace the existing Vessels Traffic Services (VTS) centre at nearby Spurn Point. We also upgrading VTS and radar navigation systems at Hull, Goole and Immingham to help guide shipping further up the estuary from Grimsby.

We project managed the development of the new facilities, from design, construction, commissioning and handover to ABP. In addition to constructing the new four-floor marine centre in Grimsby, we refurbished the existing Grimsby Port office to include a Marine Resilience Centre and VTS training centre.

This project profile features in our Northern Powerhouse section.

Project stats

40,000+ ship movements controlled by the new centre
1.2km channel linking IT services at the control centre and port office

points of note

Integrating systems

Our project managers brought together the numerous stakeholders whose functions and systems are being integrated in the new control centre, including the Vessel Traffic Services along the Humber estuary, the Dockmaster at Grimsby and several divisions of ABP.

A long-standing relationship

The Humber Marine Control Centre is the latest in a series of projects that we have delivered for ABP, with others ranging from cost consultancy at King George Dock in Hull to developing a portfolio management office with a governance and project controls framework.

Careful phasing

A vital requirement was to keep the existing system running 24/7 while operations were transferred to the new updated system, given the need to ensure safe navigation of vessels along the Humber estuary, so our experts carefully devised an innovative phasing strategy for the works.

“I’m proud to be working on such an interesting project with such significant importance in relation to the continued commercial working life of the busy Humber estuary.”

Chris Bowers Senior Project Manager, Mace

Tags:

ports project and programme management consultancy uk and europe

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