Sandscaping to Protect Bacton Gas Hub
Dutch firms Van Oord and Royal HaskoningDHV have begun work on a landscaping project designed to protect the UK’s Bacton gas terminal from storm-driven coastal erosion.
Under the project, 1.8mn m3 of sand will be pumped from the seabed by ship and transported to the North Norfolk coast, Royal HaskoningDHV said July 19. The sand will then be nourished onto the beach and positioned by bulldozers.
The project is due for completion in mid-August. It is the first time the anti-erosion technique known as sandscaping has been employed outside the Netherlands.
According to Royal HaskoningDHV, the project was initiated following a major storm in December 2013 that almost halved the remaining buffer zone between the Bacton terminal and the cliff edge.
The Bacton facility is operated by Royal Dutch Shell and Anglo-French company Perenco, and receives gas produced at fields on the UK Continental Shelf.