Port of Dover hosts engineering students

Last week, the Port of Dover hosted 30 students from engineering company, Tony Gee and Partners. The students, who are currently studying Civil Engineering at university, visited the Port for the day as part of their Student Visits' week.

After an induction, the group visited the Terminal Control Centre, responsible for all landside activity followed by Port Control which manages all marine activity where the students were able to witness the work required to keep Europe's busiest Ro-Ro ferry terminal operating efficiently. Presentations followed, given by Duty Harbour Master, Simon Moore and Landside Terminal Manager, Andy Rintoul when the students were also given a chance to contribute their own ideas to the Port's engineering plans.

With a view to demonstrating the practical side of work at the Port, a visit was made to piers A and E. Pier A, to be extended in 2012 will also see a new fendering system installed and Senior Engineer, David Harrison explained the reasons for the extension and talked about the design and construction. Development Engineer, Michael Grace discussed the 3 Berth upgrade project and what was involved in order for successful completion. A visit to pier E, which has recently been lengthened then followed.

Nigel Bodell, Port of Dover's Head of Engineering Development - Project Planning and Delivery said: "It was a pleasure to host a visit for such a large group of enthusiastic young engineers who were able to experience first-hand the management of marine and civil engineering projects in an intense operational environment. They were able to view the general aspects of port layout design and it offered an ideal opportunity to explain a number of exciting and innovative future developments in Europe's busiest ro-ro port."

Gareth Drought, Recruitment, Training and Personnel Manager at Tony Gee said: "To enable our budding engineers the opportunity to experience first-hand the operations at Dover was beneficial in many ways. Not only did they witness the sheer scale of operations and the logistical challenges faced by such a busy port from the control tower they also got a feel for the type of civil engineering projects they could be involved in in years to come. We were made very welcome during the day and to hear about the plans for the development was a real eye opener. We are extremely grateful to the team for offering our students a glimpse into this fascinating world."

To complete their day, whilst enjoying the view from the cliffs overlooking the Western Docks, the students were given an outline of plans for the building of Terminal 2.