NorthLink chief executive Bill Davidson today (February 12) met with representatives from the Scrabster Harbour Trust, the Scottish Executive and the Harbour Trust’s consulting engineers for the latest in a series of meetings designed to monitor progress on work at the new pier.

The facility at Scrabster is being constructed to accommodate NorthLink’s £29m vessel MV Hamnavoe on the Pentland Firth lifeline service. Work on the new pier, which is being overseen by Baptie Consulting and carried out by Mowlem Marine, should have been completed in August last year. Further delays have been caused by winter storms over the past few weeks.

NorthLink chief executive Bill Davidson said: “Winter storms have caused serious damage to the tubular and sheet piles which were being driven into the seabed. The Harbour Trust and their engineers are continuing with their inspections in order to clear debris and to ascertain the exact nature of the damage. We are informed that it is not possible to provide a revised completion date until this remedial work has been completed.

“The Pentland Firth route has, since our service came into operation on October 1, been serviced by the Caledonian MacBrayne vessel MV Hebridean Isles. Clearly, NorthLink is keen that Hamnavoe begins work on the route for which she was designed as soon as possible. While the Trust and their contracting engineers explore means by which solutions to this latest problem can be provided, and in advance of the new pier being completed, we are working with the Scottish Executive in order to maintain the best possible service on the route.

“We would, however, urge the Scrabster Harbour Trust and their consultants to make further determined efforts to overcome this latest setback,” said Davidson.