Boskalis Joint Venture Completes 53 Million Pound Dover Reclamation
Stage 3B of the Dover Western Docks Revival created 10 hectares of new port land
A joint venture between Boskalis Westminster and McLaughlin & Harvey has completed a major land reclamation programme at the Port of Dover, closing out the third stage of the port's long-running redevelopment.
The GBP 53m Dover Western Docks Revival Stage 3B project began in 2024 and covered reclamation inside the Wick Channel, the Tidal Basin marinas and Granville Dock. McLaughlin & Harvey held the principal contractor role on the scheme.
The work created 10 hectares of new port land. Reaching that figure required the placement of nearly 900,000 cubic metres of infill material to raise the dock bed to roughly 0.5m below the level of the existing quay walls.
Preparatory work was extensive. Pontoons, gangways and associated equipment were stripped out of the Tidal Basin and Granville Dock, and several existing quay wall structures were demolished, among them the North Pier and the Ferry Jetty.
New utility and road infrastructure was then installed across the project area. That scope included substantial drainage works and a complex stormwater pumping station.
Dover handles a large share of United Kingdom roll-on roll-off traffic with continental Europe, and land availability inside the port estate has been a long-standing constraint on cargo handling and vehicle marshalling. Converting enclosed dock water into usable quayside acreage is one of the few routes to added capacity at a site hemmed in by cliffs and town.
The Dover Western Docks Revival programme has run in stages since the middle of the last decade, progressively shifting cargo activity westwards inside the harbour to free the eastern docks for ferry operations.
