Following a competitive open tender process, Mackley was selected for its extensive experience in marine environments and heritage structures – expertise that will be vital in restoring this Grade II* Listed landmark, the only pier in the UK to connect to an island.

Our work on the pier structure is due to begin by the end of 2025 and is expected to take just over a year. The restoration will involve careful work on the pier’s 15 cast iron trestles and timber deck, preserving its historic character while ensuring safety and longevity.

This phase of the project has been made possible thanks to funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the National Heritage Memorial Fund through the UK government’s Cultural Assets Fund, Historic England and North Somerset Council.

North Somerset Council, which purchased the pier in July 2023 at a sale price of £400k funded by the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Association), is overseeing the restoration, ensuring the project is delivered responsibly and sustainably. Alongside the pier restoration, works are progressing well on the land side phase with works including restoring buildings, creating visitor facilities and installing essential services and infrastructure for the whole site.

Councillor Mark Canniford, North Somerset Council’s cabinet member responsible for the Birnbeck Pier project, said: “It’s great to see momentum building with our project to restore Birnbeck Pier and Island. The first phase of work was completed at the end of last year, achieved within budget and ahead of schedule. Work on the landside phase is progressing well, and we look forward to Mackley starting on site later this year to restore the structure of our beloved old pier. The site has significant importance to our country’s heritage, and will once again realise huge economic benefit to the town and wider area.”

This landmark project will help regenerate Weston’s cultural and economic landscape, preserving a beloved coastal icon for future generations.

Mackley Managing Director, Ben Hamer commented, “We’re looking forward to working with all the supporters of the pier to bring this exciting vision to life.”

More information about the Birnbeck Pier Project can be found on North Somerset Council’s dedicated website page.

The Council, designers and our site teams have been working effectively since first contact to get the pier safe and open to the public as soon as possible. We have received positive feedback from the Council and the public on the work that has been completed so far and the Council has done an excellent job of keeping everyone informed of the progress through a dedicated web page with updates and answers to some of the questions people have. to keep everyone regularly updated with progress to make sure everyone understands what has happened so far.

Despite some dips in the good weather we had been having, we have been able to get the works underway at Worthing Pier, and the team has made great progress so far. Six 15m steel piles have been driven into the seabed, either side of the pier, further strengthened by capping and bracing. Steel support beams and 16.5m steel trusses on top will take the weight of the pier and enable the removal of the damaged piles and subsequent replacement.

The team has been working all hours of the days, nights and weekends, whenever the tide and weather has allowed and will continue to do so until we can get the pier open again.

It is an excellent example of Mackley’s emergency call out response and skilful engineering. The progress also shows what good, long term relationships with our clients can achieve when working together, as one big team.

Big thanks to the guys on site who have done such a great job on this high profile project, Lawrence Rogers, Gavin Heater, Elliott Young, Kevin Heater, Kevin Rowland, Lee Cant, Dean Halton, Max Downie and Mark Heron.

We are beyond thrilled that our Ventnor Eastern Esplanade Urgent Works picked up the Collaboration & Integrated Working award at the SECBEAwards2024. We’re sure that engraving all those logos on the award took some time, but so worth it when a team like this gets the recognition they deserve. Mackley, with Isle of Wight Council, Coastal Partners, Jacobs, Environment Agency, Island Roads, and Southern Water will share this weighty trophy. We are incredibly proud of the entire team, this project really was a true demonstration of collaboration at its best, everyone was striving towards the same goal to make a huge difference! 

Thank you to everyone involved in the VEEUW project.

The judges were impressed with the number of organisations who immediately came together to address a critical issue. Some of whom were key stakeholders who had no contractual obligation to the project and yet provided free resource to support the achievement of the solution, truly embodying the nature of the award. The winners’ ‘no regrets’ approach, was designed without impacting their future capital programme and the collaboration and commitment of many organisations that came together, was maintained throughout the entirety of the programme. The judges were particularly impressed with the recognition of the site team and their dedication and commitment to prevent a potential catastrophe

Judging panel of the SECB Constructing Excellence Awards

We of course agree with every single word. It would not have been such a success without that dedication from everyone involved.

Thank you to SECBE for a fabulous event, Willmott Dixon for being Headline Sponsor and PiLON Ltd for the sponsorship of our award.

As finalists at the Constructing Excellence SECBE Awards 2024 for Ventnor Eastern Esplanade Urgent Works, we are also up with a chance to win the People’s Choice Award.

This is a special award decided only by the public so we need your help!

This hugely resourceful project is such a shining example of whole team commitment and collaboration, we’d be really grateful if you could help the team get the recognition they deserve.

Voting is NOW OPEN! 🙌

You can vote by checking out our blog and scrolling to the bottom of the page… remember to click ‘Vote: People’s Choice’.

The closing date is Thursday 20th June 2024 at 17:00 and it’s only 1 vote per IP address.

Thank you so much in advance for your support.

Fingers crossed!

We recently submitted Ventnor Eastern Esplanade Urgent Works for the Integration & Collaborative Working category at the Constructing Excellence SECBE Awards.

We are delighted to announce that our project has been shortlisted and we are a FINALIST!

This project is a true demonstration of collaboration between Isle of Wight Council, Coastal Partners, Environment Agency, Jacobs and BCP Council. We are immensely proud of the entire team, they have all been focused and fully committed right from the start. We’ve got everything crossed for the awards night!

“We were really pleased to be able to facilitate the reuse of timber from Bournemouth for the project at Ventnor. A great reuse of materials, creating a more sustainable solution for the IoW. Great work by the Mackley team, Steve Inman, Lee Harwood, Trevor Mossop to name a few and our Integrated Project Team Coastal Partners, Jacobs, BCP Council and of course the Isle of Wight Council. “

Paul Nutter, Contract Manager

We were on site at 5.30am for low tide the following morning to inspect the damage and plan the next steps and by midday we had a full team on site. Within 24 hours we had mobilised and resourced the works and within 48 hours, work commenced with all our RAMS, Method Statements, CPP and design solutions completed and approved.

Public safety was the priority, as the culvert was on a popular open beach. Once the site was made safe, we had to address the flood risk. We cleared and redistributed the shingle in front of a sea wall, which had been undermined by the high tides, while we fixed the timber sofit to the culvert. This was a whole team project with our Operations, Commercial and Technical Services Teams working collaboratively with the Environment Agency and Coastal Partners to have the full repair completed within 2 weeks.