Wick harbour 'going in right direction' with emergency stabilisation scheme
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Emergency stabilisation work at Wick’s storm-damaged harbour is on course for completion by the end of next week.
Funding is still being sought for a wider programme of improvements at the port, but harbour master Ian Cormack said: "We're going in the right direction.”
Concerns came to light after Storm Babet in October, when Wick Bay was affected by big swells and powerful waves, causing gaps to open up in the stonework at the outer harbour quay. Babet has been followed by a series of other easterly storms.
Wick Harbour Authority (WHA) announced its emergency stabilisation scheme at the start of December.
Local company Lochshell Engineering carried out the first stage, aimed at preventing further movement until a full repair and improvement project can be put in place.
“It's basically a stabilisation project at the moment," Mr Cormack said. "We've got strapping right around the quay with steel pads on it which helps to keep the thing together.
"Basically it takes the pressure off the quay. The wires take the strain of the structure if it tries to move."
Concreting work is now being carried out by another local firm, GMR Henderson.
Mr Cormack said: “They've taken out the old concrete which was damaged and they've put in reinforcing and are pouring new concrete – it's a big concrete slab now. There's quite a lot of concrete going in there – I think in total there will be about 90 cubic metres.
“Hopefully by the end of next week it should be complete, the stabilisation part of it.
“That's the first stage – that's not the main project. This will hold everything together, hopefully, until we get going on it properly.
“We're still working on funding for the main project. Hopefully things will become a bit clearer about the middle of January, where we are with it.”
Mr Cormack pointed out that stormy conditions had been "incessant" since mid to late October.
"It's certainly the worst spell of easterly winds we've had for a long, long time," he said.
"We've had seven notifiable storms within just over two months, all from the east.
“We certainly hope the locals will sleep easier at nights, knowing that this is being done.
"We're not out of the woods yet but we're getting there. We're going in the right direction.”
The harbour board called an emergency meeting on October 30, attended by more than 40 stakeholders from multiple agencies, after the damage to the stonework became evident.
WHA chairman Robert Silverwood said in December: “We look forward to the initial stabilisation works being completed, which will give us some comfort that the structure will be preserved until work can commence on the full scheme to improve the harbour entrance.”
Jamie Stone, the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, raised the matter in the House of Commons. He had previously warned that a collapse of the sea defences would be a “catastrophe” for the local economy, while Maree Todd, the SNP MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, called for all funding avenues to be explored.
Wick is the operations and maintenance base for the £2.5 billion Beatrice offshore wind farm which was officially opened in 2019. Beatrice is operated by SSE Renewables on behalf of a joint venture partnership and provides work for about 90 people.
