The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), ‘the charity that saves lives at sea’, is an entirely volunteer driven organisation that has saved as many as 140,000 lives at sea since its beginning in 1824. In order to carry on providing this service with the ever changing environmental and economical climate new developments were recently proposed. This involved construction of a new All Weather Lifeboat (ALB) production and maintenance facility at RNLI Poole to deal with increasing demand.
Due to the tradition of naming lifeboats after rivers the new production facility project was named RNLI Coventina, after the Celtic river goddess who represented inspiration, abundance and renewal. The site will provide better integration with the supply chain improving assurances of quality and reliability of supply in addition to producing £29.1m in savings over 17 years.
As part of the ongoing building works being conducted on the site by Bam Nuttall we were contracted to remove the cofferdam, a temporary enclosure that allows for dry construction work in a body of water. This had been built to allow construction of a new concrete slipway to the Coventina building. Removal involved cutting away 22 pairs of piles, flush with the newly laid concrete, allowing the area to re-flood safely so that it is ready for the launching and recovery of lifeboats at the facility. All work was completed on time and to the clients satisfaction.
