Following my last post I contacted the Wells Harbour Master, Robert Smith, who replied almost immediately to my query about the harbour works bearing no resemblance to what was originally published. Below is am extract from his email response.
The new works going on down at the beach are coming together nicely so far, but please remember this is still a work in progress and will not look, when its finished in the Spring, like it does today, i.e. a building site. The sand batter (breakwater) we hope will vegetate within six months so hopefully will blend in as natural dunes. This is quite an important stage as the batter will help protect the area where the vessels will moor from easterly and southerly storms, as the Beach bank and the Lifeboat point to the north protects the area from the other directions.
The jetty and pontoons will be arriving early February and should be in place by the end of February and the first boats are expected to arrive end of March.
The dredger during the next week or two will be going to the shipyard in Gt. Yarmouth to have some modifications to the spudlegs. Once it returns mid-December, we will then start digging in the channel.
After seeing the proposals for the ‘new jetty’ at Wells-next-the-Sea I was under the impression that a finger pier was to be built out from the beach bank with floating pontoons running parallel to the bank about 30 meters from the bank. At least that is how it was shown in the artist’s impression published elsewhere online and shown below.
It is obvious that this is not the case and it now appears that an ‘outer harbour’ is being built. A considerable amount of work has been done, and a lot more to be done. The ‘outer harbour’ is being built to support the new Sheringham Shoal Wind Farm.
As can be seen from the pictures work is proceeding at a pace on the new harbour facility at Wells-next-the-Sea.
A good start has been made to work at Wells-next-the-Sea harbour in preparation for the support of the Sheringham Shoal Wind Farm. As can be seen from the pictures the efforts so far have concentrated on the new berths south of the lifeboat house. Not only has the Kari Hege been busy but there has been a lot of construction work from the land.
Not having visited the site I cannot add any more comments about this side of the work or display any pictures but I hope that you find the aerial pictures interesting.
Click on Thumbnails
Pictures by Mike Page