Hamilton Graving Dry Dock, Belfast Harbour

Doran Consulting was appointed as lead consultant to project manage the reinstatement of Hamilton Graving Dock, the 150 year old dry dock in Belfast Harbour close to the Odyssey Complex, where the famous SS Nomadic was built in 1911.  

Hamilton Graving Dock is a listed historic monument which was originally built in the 1860s and had a long history of being used for repairing, maintaining and fitting out ships, but had been out of commission for nearly 30 years. Our brief was to make the dock operational again in preparation for the return and restoration of the Nomadic.

The project involved organising all statutory licenses with the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, the design of the dock gate and making the dock safe for the restoration team and volunteers to work on the Nomadic. The project also involved drying out the dock in preparation for restoration, the supervision of the Nomadic being brought into the dock and the propping of the vessel.  

This difficult and complex project was completed on an extremely tight timescale to enable the Nomadic to move into Hamilton Dry Dock for the Tall Ships Event in 2009. We also provided the design tendering and contract administration services.