Minister Moniz: Update On Heritage Wharf Work
While all works may not be complete, the Government remains confident that Heritage Wharf will be prepared to receive its first ship on May 15th, Minister of Public Works Trevor Moniz said.
The $22.36 million project is scheduled to be completed in time for the arrival of the Norwegian Breakaway cruise ship on May 15th. The 4,000-passenger, 1063-foot long ship will be the largest cruise ship to ever visit Bermuda.
The Ministry of Public Works said they have been reorganizing its construction procedure to minimize the effect of the damage caused by a passing vessel but the incident has caused some delay to construction.
“We will intensify our efforts over the coming week in an attempt to make up for lost time. This will be to the detriment of the mooring dolphins but these are not critical structures for the arrival of the Norwegian Breakaway and so this is the direction we must take,” Minister Moniz said.
The full statement from the Ministry is below:
The Minister of Public Works, the Hon. Trevor Moniz, JP, MP, has advised that last week workers at the Heritage Wharf Project completed most of the piling on the southern breasting dolphin. The Ministry had hopes of completing this stage ahead of schedule but ultimately the need for crane repairs made this impossible as workers have been sharing one crane and one barge between both dolphins currently under construction.
Spares parts were flown in for the second crane on Saturday and the good weather enabled repairs to be undertaken on Monday. “Welding a critical structural section on to a crane unfortunately requires controlled site conditions and a cooperative weather system which we did not have on Sunday,” Minister Moniz said. He added: “The repairs were completed last Monday at midday and the weld was tested. We then had a frustrating 48 hour wait that was required under the repair procedure prior to retesting the weld and finally we were up and running again on Thursday afternoon a week to the hour from the original incident.”
The Ministry of Public Works has been reorganizing its construction procedure to minimize the effect of the damage caused by a passing vessel but the incident has caused some delay to construction. “We will intensify our efforts over the coming week in an attempt to make up for lost time. This will be to the detriment of the mooring dolphins but these are not critical structures for the arrival of the Norwegian Breakaway and so this is the direction we must take,” Minister Moniz said.
The Minister continued: “On a more positive note we have completed the initial phases of the pile test in the ground transportation area. The pile load was incrementally increased over a two day period and the downward movement of the pile measured with dial gauges reading to 1000th of an inch at each stage. Once the movement had stopped we increased the load and monitored movement again. Once we had proven the capacity to take a downward load we reversed pulling it upwards over two days.”
The Minister said initial results of the soil strength test were not promising and some concerns were voiced regarding the soil strength, however with time the test results proved promising. “It will be a few days yet before the results are fully analyzed but we are hopeful that we will not have to weld additional extensions on the piles and drive them deeper still or look to alternative measures to strengthen the foundations.”
Work has also progressed well in the prefabrication area in the South Basin of Dockyard the Minister advised. He also work has been completed on two precast beams weighing 30 tonnes each and have prefabricated reinforcement cages for 36 piles. “Meanwhile work has started on pre-fabrication of reinforcement mats for the concrete decks that are cast on top of the piles for the ship to rest up against. All of the works being carried out at the same time as the piling saves time in construction once the piling crews have moved on,” said Minister Moniz.
Welding has been going on into the night to speed up our production and the Minister advised that the public may have noticed a site presence with lighting towers and work continuing beyond midnight at times.
“We are also working hard to improve visitor information at the arrivals hall at Heritage Wharf and trying to improve the pedestrian flow through Dockyard. We are being assisted by local consultant engineers in this process and we will have new signage prepared and installed for 15th of May that will complement the signage and transportation systems that have been coordinated by the Ministry of Tourism Development and Transport alongside WEDCo. While all works may not be complete we remain confident that the dock will be prepared to receive its first ship on May 15th,” Minister Moniz said.
thank you again for the detailed update and I know this project is a challenge not due to the work but due to the time frame.
We seem to be at the same juncture as the original wharf project. Time is of the essence and adjustments are being madee to the work. Does anyone know if they are using the crane that is already on island to keep to the work schedule rather thatn being delayed waiting for parts for the original crane that was damaged?
Attempting to stir the pot here…………….what if this project is not completed on time, what then??
Just as important, what if this project comes in over-budget, what then??
I just wanna know if any of these things happen, will people be critical or will they just be a blind follower as they claim others to be!
There is no way this wharf will be ready to accommodate all those passengers by the 15th. I hope the workers are not making desperate short-cuts because we will end up right back at square one. When do they plan on pouring the concrete? That alone is going to take several weeks to set. I hope the Minister doesn’t bow to pressure and makes sure it is done right this time. As a transportation operator, I heard a lot of grumbling from tourists about the tenders. However, that would be better than to rush the job and have something bad happen.
I don’t understand the grumbling about tenders. If you go to Cayman they can have as many as 7 large ships all anchored offshore with passengers tendered ashore. What’s the problem?
the tender operation they had in place several days ago was a disaster. the cruise line had to use their own tenders so that no one was waiting for long lengths of time.
Ah, it’s not the tendering, it’s our tendering that sucks.
I have been on cruises where a tender was required & there was long waits there as well. The whole idea of trying to off load & on load large groups at the same time tends to cause a bottleneck effect. What I found was to simply wait until the crowds dies down a bit before trying for one of the tenders but you have to be sure to be back long before the ship tells you to otherwise you’re going to have a long wait with everyone else trying to get back on board the ship at the same time.
i just hope when the dock is complete, the breakaway wont breakaway LOL.
but as it has been said over and over, if it was done right from the beginning we would not be in the situation we’re in today.
fingers crossed that all works out.
Saw a group of wharf workers down Horseshoe yesterday putting away many, many Buds. I hope the piles were driven straight this morning.
@ Sandgrownan, don’t ask me- ask the grumbling tourists. Who knows, maybe they’ve never been to the Cayman’s. I agree, it seems like a lot of griping about a minor inconvenience. However, experience has shown me that Americans (particularly) will find the most minute thing to complain about. It’s just in their nature.
Sandgrownan– Tenders mean fewer people getting off the ship to spend their money on-island. It also means less time for those people who make it onshore to spend time and money on the island.
It is also inconvenient for passengers — a minor incovenience if it’s one stop on a multi-island tour but a real letdown if it’s the only stop on your tour (as most trips to Bermuda are). Imagine if you don’t have time (or there’s no room on the tender) to get off the ship on the only island you are visiting? Or imagine that you’re only in Bermuda for 8 hours or 36 hours, and you have to spend two of those hours getting on and off the tender?
Fair enough, i was simply asking
Yvon Tripper, don’t beat the messenger LOL
but yeah, we must remember that this island is not use to tendering people to shore which is why i could understand the issues that took place during the last two ship visits.
one thing is for sure, safety first but if the breakaway has to tender for the first one or two visits, let them… we need the pier safe!