Hoodown: reconstructed for the big work to come
Hoodown: reconstructed for the big work to come
The project to revamp the Dart Harbour site at Hoodown will take more than 6 months to complete, cost in the region of £750,000 and has faced many challenges – so why did the authority choose to undertake it?
Hoodown is a site on the Kingswear side of the river Dart – it is the home of Dart Harbour’s skilled craftsmen who maintain the 1,600 buoys along the tidal stretch of the river Dart and its small fleet of vessels.
The site has been well used and helped the harbour authority to keep costs down by taking much of its maintenance and construction work in-house. But the upcoming maintenance of the harbour’s 270 pontoons presented the harbour board with a dilemma – they could not undertake this massive maintenance project in-house.
Harbourmaster Rob Giles said that a big investment in the facilities at Hoodown became an important goal for the authority.
‘The maintenance facility at Hoodown was created in the mid 1980s on a site which had been used by the Free French in the Second World War,’ he said. ‘The decision was taken to allow maintenance to the Harbour Authority’s 1,600 buoys. It has proved a very good investment.
‘Around the same time the first of the authority’s pontoons were installed and over the last couple of decades there has been a big increase in the number of pontoons.
‘This is because the expectations of those using the river has changed: now people want to pop down to their boat for a weekend, they want access to electricity and fresh water and they also want more security, which a pontoon gives.
‘I imagine there are now 10 times as many leisure craft using the river as there were 30 years ago. In the 60s and 70s the harbour authority couldn’t let every mooring on the river which seems incredible now as we have a 10 year waiting list!’
The need to maintain the large pontoons created a problem: send them away at huge cost, or invest in the Hoodown site with all the challenges that presented. The harbour authority put much thought into the decision, but the chance to have a facility which could look after the pontoons, the fleet of harbour vessels and respond to new challenges more effectively swung the day.
The work to create a new apron quay around the building and improve the buildings themselves began in May – the contractor was Submarine Services.
The work has not been without challenges – and a few historical quirks no one expected.
‘We began the work of driving 19 piles to create the apron,’ said Rob, ‘but the first two presented big problems - we investigated and found there were piles there from a previous jetty. We had obviously looked into the records and we can’t find any mention of it. It appeared to be made from railway sleepers bundled together and then driven into the mud. We also then found an old tank bund - a pit designed to hold a large tank – the size of a bus which was full of oil and fuel and asbestos. That required very careful work to remove the bund, the oil and fuel and of course the asbestos. We are pleased that this work was carried out, because it has helped to clean up the river.
‘After we had dealt with these obstructions the piles have been driven to a very good depth. Our contractor’s state of the art equipment has allowed this to happen and we are delighted at how the work has gone.’
The new facilities at Hoodown include a powerful crane that will be able to lift pontoons and boats out of the water, provides good facilities for the river staff who will be maintaining the pontoons, buoys and vessels and gives the Dart Harbour a base for operations fit for the next twenty years.
‘We think the money it will save us on maintenance will mean it pays for itself in around 12-15 years,’ said Rob. ‘This is a huge investment, but it is going to allow us to do so much more and give better value to all our berth holders and river users. As a responsible harbour authority, this is the best kind of investment we could be involved in. We have the right facilities and by having those we can keep hold of our highly talented and skilled staff who give so much effort to making sure the river is run correctly. At the same time, we have ensured that the work is of good quality and great value.
‘Everyone involved in the revamp of this facility can be very pleased with its outcome!’
Picture by Joe Murtagh
First Published November 2011 By The Dart
