Portsmouth Project Receives Award

The team behind the preparation of the naval base for the new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth has received a New Year’s Honor from the Royal Navy.

Royal HaskoningDHV’s role has been as a member of this joint Naval Base Command, Defense Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and Industry team preparing Her Majesty’s Naval Base Portsmouth to accommodate the vessel, including providing environmental consenting support.

To recognize the achievement, the Royal Navy’s 2nd Sea Lord – Vice Admiral Sir Jonathan Woodcock OBE officially awarded the Joint NBC, DIO and Industry team with the team commendation at a ceremony in Portsmouth.

Jackie Lavender, Technical Director and Marine Development Sector Lead at Royal HaskoningDHV said: “Our role over the last 12 years has involved carrying out the environmental impact assessment, gaining consent and then meeting post consent requirements for the Marine Licence required for the deepening, widening and lengthening of the approach channel to the Portsmouth Harbor and also refurbishment of the jetty to withstand the vessel when she is alongside.”

The port area that was dredged was around 157 hectares, approximately the size of 200 football pitches.

Over the duration of the project a number of interesting issues had to be dealt with including the discovery of unexploded bombs, a human skull, cannons and anchors. The bombs dated from the Second World War, when the city was a target of German bombing, but many of the archaeological finds were much older dating back centuries.