It’s been a busy time recently on several fronts for the Leapmoor team, and as always with projects front and centre within the land and marine development arena. Last weekend was a double cruise liner day visiting Invergordon Service Base. There’s nothing new about that as the Port of Cromarty Firth is an established and busy cruise port providing a gateway for tourists to visit the Scottish Highlands. But this time, the landscape had changed with the first vessel being berthed at the newly expanded Quay West 1 and 2.
Leapmoor LLP’s Gary McCann has provided project management support to the Port of Cromarty Firth for the Phase 3 and Phase 4 marine development projects that have expanded the facility ready for offshore renewables. With a combined investment of over £50M, the expansion on the western side of the port, undertaken in two phases, provides a combined continuous berth of 372m, capable of providing 12m water depth. The expanded facility offers almost 100,000m2 of additional land ready for laydown with a heavy load capability of 12 tonnes per square metre, and utilities at quayside and across the land.
Drone photo credit: Calum Slater
The site can be used for assembly of components for the ongoing and future demands of offshore renewables projects to be build off the coast of Scotland. The port and wider Cromarty Firth has already seen storage, assembly and deployment of components and equipment for the Beatrice, Moray East, and Seagreen offshore wind development projects, as well as decommissioning of the demonstrator project deployed at Kincardine Floating Offshore Project. With the Cromarty Firth offering one of Scotland’s best sheltered and naturally deep stretches of water, together with the excellent facilities and it’s experienced team, the Port of Cromarty Firth is well placed to attract further renewables projects cementing its position as a powerhouse of the Highland economy.
It was great to attend the handover site visit to the port operations team following completion of the final works by the team at Pat Munro (Alness) Ltd. and to see the combined berths in action. Well done to all of the team at the Port of Cromarty Firth and Leapmoor look forward to seeing many more arrivals over the summer and use of the expanded facility for renewables projects in the years to come.