UK port operator PD Ports has opened a new marine facility at Cargo Fleet Wharf in Middlesbrough, northeast England, the company announced on Monday, October 19.
The multi-million-pound, three-storey base sits within Teesport Commerce Park on the banks of the River Tees. It brings the company's marine operations and marine engineering teams together, replacing premises at Vulcan Street that dated from the 1960s.
The new base houses a specialist workshop for vessel maintenance. PD Ports said smaller vessels can now, for the first time, be raised from the river onto the quay and brought indoors for maintenance and repair.
The teams based at the facility carry out the company's statutory harbour authority duties on the Tees and at the Port of Hartlepool. These include dredging, hydrographic surveying, navigational aid maintenance and oil spill response.
PD Ports' jurisdiction covers a 12-mile (19.3-kilometre) stretch of the Tees and an area extending three miles (4.8 kilometres) into the North Sea. Each year, its harbour office tracks around 4,100 ships as they arrive and depart.
Marine Director Chris Stocks said the building would also give the company a place to bring river users, customers and partners together.