Displaying items by tag: Wind Farm Assembly

6th February 2024

Plans Progress to Redevelop Cork Dockyard for Offshore Wind Assembly Site

At the Cork Dockyard facility at Rushbrooke, Cork Harbour is where redevelopment plans to service planned offshore wind projects have taken a step forward.

The plan to support offshore windfarm projects is proposed by the Doyle Shipping Group (DSG) which is to redevelop the site as a port infrastructure hub for use by developers of offshore renewable energy (ORE) projects. DSG, the largest port service solutions provider in Ireland with offices in seven ports, has labelled the project, the Cork Dockyard Rejuvenation Project (CDR)

As the Irish Examiner reports, DSG has in recent days issued its tender documents to seek a public relations firm to deliver a strategy for the public consultation process at the site of the former Cork Verolme Dockyard (V.C.D.) shipyard. The current marine engineering facility of Cork Dockyard, carries out ship-repair, survey / dry-dockings including use by the Naval Service.

As the project is large-scale, the ORE falls into the category of a Strategic Infrastructure Development (SID) and as such the application for planning permission lies with An Bord Pleanála.

Approximately 15 hectares is the dockyard site which comprises a graving dry-dock for ship-repair and the adjoining redundant shipyard which was the largest in the Republic. The origins of the shipyard can be traced to its establishment in 1853 and for many decades was considered one of the most significant elements of the harbour's industrial infrastructure.

During the shipyard’s peak, more than 1,100 were employed at the Rushbrooke site as Afloat highlights is where major vessels including those for Irish Shipping Ltd, B+I Line, Sealink/British Rail and the Naval Service including flagship L.E. Eithne were built and launched.

The V.C.D. shipyard however closed in 1984 with the last vessel built, L.E.Eithne for the Navy, noting this ship would also become historically significant, as the last ever ship to be built in the Republic.

More than a decade after the closure of Ireland’s only shipbuilding yard, the site was acquired by DSG in 1995.

Further reading here on the plans for the ORE facility, which will not interfer with the dockyard's ship-repair infrastructure.

Published in Cork Harbour

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Shannon Foynes Port Information

Shannon Foynes Port (SFPC) are investing in an unprecedented expansion at its general cargo terminal, Foynes, adding over two-thirds the size of its existing area. In the latest phase of a €64 million investment programme, SFPC is investing over €20 million in enabling works alone to convert 83 acres on the east side of the existing port into a landbank for marine-related industry, port-centric logistics and associated infrastructure. The project, which will be developed on a phased basis over the next five years, will require the biggest infrastructure works programme ever undertaken at the port, with the entire 83 acre landbank having to be raised by 4.4 metres. The programme will also require the provision of new internal roads and multiple bridge access as well as roundabout access.