Work has started on a £1bn rebuild of facilities at Devonport Dockyard which will create more than 600 construction jobs during the next five years.
The yard, the largest in the 海角视频, is to undergo a huge redevelopment which will start with work to allow the newest nuclear submarines to be refitted in Plymouth.
Babcock International Group Plc wants to start by rebuilding the 10 Dock Facility at the yard, including the demolition and construction of buildings, to support the maintenance programme for “new and existing classes of submarine” such as the new Dreadnought-class ballistic missile subs due to arrive in service in the 2030s.
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Work has already begun on stripping out a building at the yard, which will be demolished in early 2022 to become the first significant step in the ambitious programme.
Although the work starts with the redevelopment of 10 Dock, and buildings near it, but it is only part of a number of projects associated with a major infrastructure refurbishment of the nuclear licensed docking and berthing facilities at the dockyard.
The programme has been described as a £1bn-plus infrastructure investment needed “to meet the future needs of the Royal Navy”.
Details of the ambitious programme were given to more than 100 construction industry representatives at a Meet the City Buyers event, hosted at City College Plymouth by Building Plymouth so companies can be briefed on the major construction projects under way and coming up in the city.
They heard that the forthcoming work is centred around 5 Basin at the yard and although it is predicated on 10 Dock there will also be work at, 9 Dock, 14 Dock and 15 Dock and at the East Berth and West Wall Berth, all of this needed for the new nuclear submarines,.
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Work will also be carried out on 8 Dock and 11 Dock, which will be used for new warships, plus 12 Dock’s caissons, and on enabling and secondary facilities too. Construction work is due to start in 2022 at 8, 9 12, 14 and 15 Docks, with all of them completed by 2024.
At 10 Dock the enabling works have begun and a design phase will continue until 2024, by which time construction will have started, and will run until 2026.
Initially, work would be carried out to make the 2.61-hectare dock narrower, with strengthened walls and a higher barrier to prevent flooding in case sea levels rise due to climate change.
There would also be a new floor to the dock, one of four dry docks south of 5 Basin, and dockside buildings would be demolished and replaced with new ones, and new cranes would be built too. The construction phase at 11 Dock is expected to start in early 2023 and be completed by the end of 2025.
It is expected that about 650 construction workers will be needed on-site during the main works and that it will “create new businesses, new jobs, and new skills”.
There is expected to be a lot of opportunities for firms in the supply chain with engineering and construction companies including Costain, Mott MacDonald, Mace Group and Bechtel already working with Babcock on the ambitious project.
Kevin Russell-Young, programme director, infrastructure projects for Babcock, told the Meet the City Buyers event that there will be “over £1bn to invest in Devonport over the next five years”.
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He said projects would be centred around 5 Basin and explained: “The largest is 10 Dock, a total redevelopment for subs. 10 Dock has 18 months of enabling work before the major development phase.
“We are developing 11 and 12 Docks for the new type frigates, and secondary facilities too. There will be some smaller projects not to the scale of 10 Dock, so a lot of work over this period of time.”
He said there would be opportunities for companies to be involved and said: “Site wide works provide a significant opportunity for local engagement.”
But he also stressed that beyond 2026 there would be further development at the dockyard with a pipeline of work for the next 30 years.
“I’m looking beyond five years,” said Mr Russell-Young. “A massive pipeline of work. We have £1bn we can see but more than that time frame. A very exciting time.”
Four new Dreadnought-class missile submarines, which will form part of the 海角视频's nuclear deterrent programme, will enter service in the early 2030s. They will replace the Vanguard-class submarines, becoming the largest submarines ever operated by the Royal Navy.
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In June 2021 Babcock secured a £34m Government contract to work on the Dreadnought subs - safeguarding more than 100 jobs in Plymouth and creating dozens more. The company’s submarine operation at Devonport Dockyard was given a two-year contrast extension to provide support to the Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA) for the new fleet of submarines and will carry out essential work on the Dreadnought programme.
Meanwhile, work has officially started on a £1.25bn project to build the Royal Navy’s five new Type 31 frigates at Babcock’s facility at Rosyth in Fife, Scotland. The warships, and new Type 26s, could be refitted at Devonport, but the official decision has not yet been made.