Peel Ports Group
Ro-Ro Pontoon
The Port of Sheerness

Introduction

Peel Ports Group operate several ports in the UK.

Theses include ports in Liverpool, Birkenhead, Manchester Ship Canal, Heysham, Glasgow, Medway, Dublin, Great Yarmouth and Medway.

These ports manage an array of cargo including timber, steel, automotive and Project Cargo. Various shipping options can be processed including including Roll-on roll-off (RoRo), Lift-on Lift-off (LoLo) and container carriers.

The ports of Sheerness and Chatham form the core terminals of Peel Ports’ London Medway cluster. Positioned on the Thames Estuary it is within easy reach of Northern Europe. It has deep-water access, which is perfect for ships of varying sizes coming from everywhere in the world.

This new Ro-Ro pontoon will help provide a flexible port service in the port of Sheerness.

Construction

The Ro-Ro pontoon (41m x 33m) weighs over 600 tonnes and took 10 weeks to construct.

The pontoon was build by Ravestein B.V. This Shipyard and Construction Company, located in Deest, the Netherlands specialises in heavy steel constructions such as bridges, lock gates and roll-on/roll-off landing stages

APAC

All work associated with this project had a 10 year APAC warranty.

To meet the terms and conditions for the APAC guarantee, Vinçotte carried out regular independent technical checks on site.

Project Considerations

The Ro-Ro pontoon will operate in a salt water environment with the very high marine corrosive category (C5-M).

Applicators

Ravestein built the pontoon and are APAC approved applicators.

Welds had ‘very high preparation’ (P3) to help ensure a good paint application. All welding splatters and slag were removed. Steel welding sharp edges were ground and rounded.

Further preparation included cleaning, blasting, grinding & abrading.

Paint Solution

APAC members PPG provided the paint system.

The PPG Sigmacover paint system was used in conjunction with SigmaWeld 199.

Sigmacover 280, 435, 456, 805 were used to paint the pontoon, bridge, control cabin, crash barrier, pump room, dry tanks and ballast tanks.

A film thickness was used to provide a high quality finish and it will also ensure extra durability.

The dry tanks were painted with Sigmacover 280 (90 μm) and Sigmacover 805 (220 μm). The ballast tanks required two layers Sigmacover 805.

Summary