Uig Harbour closes for dredging

To allow for the next phase of works to safeguard future ferry services, The Highland Council said that Uig Harbour will close on Monday, 16 January, for 8 weeks.

The planned and programmed outage is required for works to replace life expired infrastructure. 

The works during this stage will include dredging the existing berth, installing new fender pile sockets, demolition of part of the existing pier slab, extraction of piles, piling of new linkspan dolphins and bankseat.

Chair of the Council’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee, Cllr Ken Gowans, said: “These works at Uig are essential to ensure the ferry services on the Skye Triangle route can continue to serve communities and visitors for many years to come. This will be the first temporary closure and work has been planned and programmed in a way to get as many key work activities completed over the 8 weeks.”

“The Skye Triangle Resilience Group, which includes the Minister for Transport and all project partners met on Monday, 19 December, in advance of the first outage and will meet throughout the outage periods with community representatives to provide regular updates on the works and will address any issues that arise.”

In addition to these permanent works, The Highland Council’s contractor, RJ McLeod, will install a temporary bridge to span between the existing linkspan and the existing pier. This will allow the ferry operations to recommence on Monday, 13 March, for normal operation of the summer timetable in 2023.

The temporary works will also include the installation of protection piles adjacent to the new roundhead construction area. This will allow the contractor to continue piling the roundhead whilst the ferry is operating.