Huge rig arrives off Portsmouth
Drilling rig in the solent
A LARGE drilling rig has arrived in Portsmouth Harbour this morning as part of preparations for the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers.
The 100ft-tall rig called Deep Diver was spotted off a foggy Southsea seafront early this morning.
It was due to arrive 10 days ago but was delayed as it underwent last-minute repairs in Southampton.
The rig will be in and around Portsmouth Harbour for six weeks, taking samples of the sea bed ahead of major dredging work in 2014 to accommodate the navy’s two new 65,000-tonne carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.
An estimated 3.5m tonnes of mud needs to be dredged from the harbour before the first warship arrives in Portsmouth in 2016 and the brightly-lit Deep Diver will be working 24 hours a day, drilling 27 bore holes to a depth of 104ft.
The samples will help the navy and harbour authorities to decide what to do with all the waste mud once it has been dredged.
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Weather for Portsmouth
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
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Comments
There are 12 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
blueblood
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 01:39 PM@ PomeyBeej......hilarious
cooter2
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 03:50 PMwe have cruise ships in the harbour they are called the gosport and isle of wight ferries ,the gosport ferry has singers and dancers at weekend.what luxury
nitram
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 06:37 PMJoseph Cala is here to rescue Pompey!
phill2935
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 04:49 PMPump it to Southampton after all thats where the crap normally go's isn't it?
spectre
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 04:25 PMwith the harbour deepend to accommodate the aircraft carriers would it not also make pompey open to receive cruise ships . there must be as much for visitors here as in southampton .anything like that would be a big boon to the city but maybe southampton would bloke anything like that .
BrigitteB
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 02:10 PM@Pompeybud! - It says it will be there for 6 weeks... You'll probably not have your windows open all night at the beginning of April!
Kate Vasey
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 02:08 PMSo that's what that big old thing is. I agree with Flying Bull, there must be literally tons of explosive archaeology down there. I hope those fellas are being well-paid. And I expect it went to Southampton first because they already have the depth capacity she is the advance-guard for in Pompey, that sounds reasonable; it's not always a competition.
Pompeybud
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 01:29 PMHow noisy is this thing?...Working 24hrs round-the-clock?!....I live near Priddy's Hard and often you can hear the sound travel across the water as clear as day so I'm slighlty worried this will be bl@@dy noisy in the summer with the windows open!....I suppose I could close the windows but that would be giving in! lol
PompeyBeej
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 11:38 AMMaybe it's laying the foundations for a Joseph Cala's underground casino...
Bomber Harris
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 10:14 AMMy thoughts exactly Flying Bull
overtheill
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 09:55 AMWith all the recent talk of Portsmouths proud shipbuilding and repair history it's strange it went to Southampton for repair before coming here
Flying bull
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 09:45 AMGood luck to them, drilling and dredging around Pompey harbour must be one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. You never know whats down there after WW2.
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