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Start to be made on new Cairnryan Port

A START could be made by the middle of next year on the new P&O/ Stena port at Cairnryan. And Stena are hoping to move in to their new base in the development, which will cost more than £40 million, a year later.

The latest plan from Port of Cairnryan, the company formed to run the new facility and owned equally by P&O and Stena, shows massive changes from the original proposal.

It is now three years since Stena's initial investment was announced. Poor soil conditions are being blamed for the delay in processing the project.

For P&O, a new multi-purpose berth will be made capable of taking both the conventional ferries and the fast craft on the route in the summer. The existing fast craft berth will be filled in as will an area in front of the present marshalling area to form a new trailer park.

Major reclamation work will be carried out to produce the Stena area to the south of the present terminal.

The company will take over the existing P&O roll on-roll off berth for their conventional ferry business and running parallel to it will be a new HSS berth.

The reclaimed land, which will produce an area virtually as large as the existing Port of Stranraer and adjacent parking at Portrodie, will be used to house a terminal building next to the HSS berth, parking for cars, freight and coaches and a marshalling area for traffic.

Access to the whole site will be from a new entrance at the extreme south end of the complex with the existing entrance closed and available for emergencies only.