The initial phase will see the trailing suction hopper dredger Waterway, the first of its type to operate in Shetland, spend around a month removing the softer seabed material, then moving to the reclamation site where the material will either be pumped ashore through a temporary prelaid pipeline, or rainbowed to shore if conditions are right.

The backhoe dredger Manu Pekka will then use its large excavator plant to dig out weathered rock directly and also fresh rock pre-blasted by a drill and blast barge. The backhoe will load the material into two self propelled hopper barges for delivery to the reclamation site where it will be dumped or, to assist placement, some may be trucked to the site. Manu Pekka will operate from the middle of this month to September.

In an overlapping phase, the drill and blast barge will be operating from mid-June to August.

Almost 490,000 m3 of good quality materials will be removed from the seabed during the £12m project. Most will be used to reclaim 5.8 hectares (14.4 acres) of land to the north of Greenhead Base, creating an additional area for future use in the decommissioning of offshore oil and gas production facilities. The rest of the material will be stockpiled there for later use.

Dredging will be to a depth of 9m throughout, a major improvement on the shallower areas, currently at 6m depth.

Lerwick Port Authority chief executive Sandra Laurenson, said, 'The deeper and wider access and the deepened berths will suit the larger vessels now operating and will be of particular benefit to the pelagic fish sector and offshore industry decommissioning, while the reclaimed land will offer opportunities to decommissioning and other industries.'

Arch Henderson LLP, Lerwick, is responsible for the design and supervision of what will be one of the largest marine civil engineering projects to be completed in Scotland in 2008. Westminster Dredging has established project offices at SBS’s Greenhead Base, and will have a workforce of 40 to 50, depending on the phases, which will see up to 40 accommodated onshore. Local resources will be used wherever possible for logistics, supplies, reclamation and other construction activities and could generate around a third of the total of the 90 to 100 jobs involved in the project.