Work has recently been completed on a pre-dredge multibeam survey onbehalf of BAM Nuttall in Stromness Harbour, Orkney. The £9.2m Copland’s Dock development will see construction of a new 100-metre pier and associated access road in Stromness.

Due to the shoaling nature of the site the survey equipment was mobilised to an open RIB to enable maximum data coverage on a favourable tide. With cold, but fine, weather the work was completed during daylight hours. The pre-dredge survey was conducted using an Odom ES3 multibeam echosounder, TSS DMS-05, Valeport MiniSVS, Trimble R8 GNSS Rover and the QINSy data acquisition and processing package. The ES3 was chosen primarily because of its suitability for deployment to a small, uncovered vessel.

Together with developments at Lyness (island of Hoy) and Hatston (near Kirkwall), the Copland’s Dock pier project forms part of Orkney Islands Council’s Three Ports Strategy to invest in major infrastructure projects that provide the marine renewables industry with upgraded and new-build pier and quayside facilities at key locations.

They will support the trialling of technologies at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) - the world’s first accredited testing facility for wave and tidal energy devices - and the future development of commercial-scale marine energy arrays in the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters, as well as benefiting the fishing and aquaculture sectors.

Press Release, February 07, 2013