Torpoint Ferry Replacement Anchorages

The Torpoint Ferry Service is the largest chain ferry operation in the world, carrying 2.4 million vehicles and 800 thousand foot passengers a year. It operates three chain ferries linking Plymouth with South East Cornwall, each vessel has a length of 48 metres and breadth of 20 metres and can carry up to 73 cars and 140 foot passengers.

With no means of steering each of the three chain ferries are guided across the Tamar Estuary between slipways sited at Torpoint and Devonport by a pair of 650m long parallel chains positioned 20 metres apart attached at either end to the slipways. Each ferry is propelled by two electrically driven chainwheels that draw chain into and through the vessel, the ferry being pulled through the water by the tension created in the chains.

To maintain steerage as the ferry decelerates and approaches the slipway, a system of pulleys and weights keeps a constant 6 tonnes tension in the chains which reduces lateral drift caused by tidal flow or wind.
The anchorage gantries that provide this constant tension system are time-expired and the entire system is due to be replaced.
The opportunity to do this occurs when every five years each of the three Torpoint ferries is removed from service for its mandatory refit.

This design and build contract seeks to provide a replacement suspended weight, constant tension anchorage, whether above or below ground level for both the Tamar and Lynher Ferry crossings (4 anchorages in all).
The Tamar Ferry refit is scheduled for April /May 2024 and the Lynher the same in 2025.
To complete the works the contractor is granted i) partial access during a preparatory period of 4 weeks prior to refit ii) full access for 6 weeks whilst the Ferry is away for refit and then iii) a period of 10 days for testing and commissioning on the ferry’s return.

To align with the ferry refit programme the contract will commence in the Autumn of ’23 with the detailed design. Subject to acceptance of the design by the Client the construction of the Tamar Ferry anchorages is scheduled for the Spring of ’24 and a pause until Spring ’25 for the construction of the Lynher’s anchorages. The contract will be completed by June/July ’25, approximately 21 months duration in all.

The successful tenderer will produce an outline design which meets or surpasses the performance specification provided by the Client. As well as the clear functional requirement the client will also be swayed by designs that consider fully the ease with which the system can be inspected and maintained. The aesthetics may also be a matter of consideration – disguise, hide or even celebrate the engineering perhaps but uninspiring cladding will not win favour.

Cornwall Council is leading this procurement to procure the replacement anchorages on behalf of its Joint Authority owners in accordance with the Public Contract Regulations 2015 and the Open Tender procedure.