Tour Of Britain

The Tour of Britain cycle race passed through Wells on September 18th as part of stage 6, Kings Lynn to Great Yarmouth. This was four days after the North Norfolk Triathlon, certainly a good week for sports fans in Wells.

Busier Than Ever

Wells is braced for the last big rush of the summer as August Bank Holiday approaches. After some dismal weather the quay and Staithe Street are once again a magnet for visitors to the town. Some residents think that Wells is too busy now and find the amount of traffic and parked cars an inconvenience. Visitors are parking their cars further and further away from the Quay and car parks as all available spaces are quickly filled.

Aerial View Of Harbour

A great aerial picture of the harbour entrance, channel and outer harbour at Wells-next-the-Sea at low water.

Photograph taken by Mike Page: Aerial Photography

Wells Outer Harbour Work Completed

Wells-next-the-Sea Outer Harbour work is now complete except for connecting up the utilities according to the the Harbour website. The outer harbour has been constructed to support the new Sheringham Shoal Wind Farm and consists of 150m of floating pontoons inside a harbour built from sandbanks to the east and south, a re-profiled beach to the north and the ‘beach bank’ to the west.Continue reading

Outer Harbour Pontoons Arrive

Plenty of action on Wells-next-the-Sea quayside this week with the arrival and launching of the new pontoons for the outer harbour. Some piles have already been positioned in the outer harbour and some of the pontoons have been towed down there. The piling work has been done by a crane barge especially brought in for the work. A mobile crane has been on the quay for launching the pontoons.

The Kari Hege continues dredging the channel as part of the ongoing work. Presently working between number 6 and 10 buoys. Most of the work around the new outer harbour has been completed but the entrance to the harbour from the main channel has yet to be cleared.

The outer harbour will be used as a support base for the new Sheringham Shoal Wind Farm.

Great aerial pics here

Harbour Works Continue

The harbour works continue apace as the most recent photographs show. The pics were taken by my brother-in-law, Don Wilks whilst visiting Wells over the Christmas period.

I believe the dredger barge Kari Hege will commence dredging the channel this month, January 2010.

Click on thumbnail

More pics here

Wells Quay In The Snow

Snow arrived in Wells a week before Christmas with fresh snow fall each day. Looks nice to a distant observer but I’m sure not every one is pleased.

Update From Wells Harbour Master

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.

Work Continues On Outer Harbour

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.

Wells Harbour Works

As can be seen from the pictures work is proceeding at a pace on the new harbour facility at Wells-next-the-Sea.

Wells-next-the-Sea Harbour Works

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

Official Christening Of Kari Hege

A champagne christening for the dredging vessel Kari Hege working to improve access into Wells harbour was hailed a “significant moment” in the port’s history.

The 200-tonne barge “Kari Hege” began work on October 5 to deepen parts of the main channel in preparation for the £1bn Sheringham Shoal offshore wind farm, due to be built by the end of 2011.

It was named after Kari Hege Mørk, stakeholder manager for the Norwegian-owned energy company behind the project, who broke a champagne bottle over her namesake’s hull in traditional fashion.

The improved channel will allow longer tidal access times for service boats and crews maintaining the 88 turbines during their 50-year lifespan.

The dredger – comprising an excavator mounted on the motorised barge Kari Hege will work until March to level the channel to a low-tide depth of 1m, after which it will be regularly maintained. It uses GPS tracking to ensure the work is precise while sand and gravel is moved aside, but not taken away.