Construction on new cruise terminals

The growing popularity for holidays on cruise ships which sail from the UK has created some buoyant prospects for construction on new cruise terminals at key port sites across the country.

Construction work on a series of significant projects involving new cruise terminals in Liverpool, Southampton, Portsmouth and Hull has either started recently or is in the pipeline.

They are serving the growing number of people who prefer to embark for a holiday afloat from the UK rather than fly to meet a ship in an overseas port. Over a million cruise passengers embarked from UK ports in 2017, up from 600,000 a decade earlier and the number of ‘port-of-call’ passengers visiting the UK has risen four-fold over the same period.

High-profile projects

Glenigan Construction Data highlights the scale of the new terminal-building programme which is getting underway.

Construction work on one of the country’s most high-profile new cruise terminals started at Liverpool Waters in January. The £60 million Cruise Liner Terminal is to be built on a suspended deck structure at Princes Jetty for the client, Liverpool City Council. McLaughlin & Harvey is the design & build contractor and Ramboll UK a key consultant on the scheme, where construction work is set to continue for 31 months (Glenigan Project ID: 13329614).

Across the Pennines on Humberside, tenders have recently been returned on Cruise Hull Yorkshire, a new £50 million cruise terminal facility close to the city centre. Construction work on the project, for client Kingston Upon Hull City Council, is set to start this spring and continue for 30 months (Glenigan Project ID: 19030666).

Meanwhile on the south coast, tenders have recently been returned on the new £8 million Portsmouth Cruise Terminal which is being built in Portsmouth Harbour for the city council. Construction work on the steel structure building with a floor area of 2 000 sq m is set to start in the late spring and continue for 14 months (Glenigan Project ID: 19367764).

Further along the coast at the Port of Southampton, applications to tender are being taken for the £1 million Cruise Terminal – Western Docks which the port’s owner ABP is planning to build. Work on the new terminal, which it is hoped will be ‘architecturally stunning’ and a landmark building in the area, is set to start this autumn and continue for 15 months (Glenigan Project ID: 19276068).

Coastal regeneration

New cruise terminals are also featuring in some significant coastal regeneration schemes. East Lothian Council is looking into the feasibility of a huge £300 million cruise terminal alongside an eco-village and business park on a 120-acre site which was formerly home to the Cockenzie Power Station in Prestopans, near Edinburgh. Work on the scheme could start in summer 2021 (Glenigan Project ID: 15124411).

A cruise ship terminal also forms part of the £200 million Waterfront Masterplan to redevelop the Port Area in Barrow in Cumbria where construction work got underway last year and is set to stretch into the 2030s as various phases are completed (Glenigan Project ID: 04372963).

Meanwhile, growth at businesses involved in the cruise ship sector is also generating new construction work. A £4.58 million head office extension for Fred.Olsen Cruise Lines in Ipswich was topped out before Christmas and is set for completion in late spring (Glenigan Project ID: 18352705).