The Royal Portbury Dock is part of the
Port of Bristol, in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
. It is situated near the village of
Portbury
Portbury is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England within the unitary authority of North Somerset. The parish includes the hamlet of Sheepway which is situated on the moorland at the northern edge of the Gordano valley, between the Go ...
on the southern side of the mouth of the
Avon, where the river joins the
Severn estuary — the
Avonmouth Docks are on the opposite side of the Avon, within
Avonmouth. The deepwater dock was constructed between 1972 and 1977, and is now a major port for the import of
motor vehicles into the
UK. The
M5 motorway runs nearby, and the huge car storage compounds around the dock are visible from the
Avonmouth Bridge. A waste industrial area west of the port is being developed as the
Portbury Ashlands Nature Reserve.
The Royal Portbury Dock has the largest entrance lock into any UK port, accommodating vessels up to beam, length and draft.
Operator
The dock is now operated by The Bristol Port Company, which also operates
Avonmouth Docks, and has done since 1991 when it purchased a 150-year lease from Bristol City Council. Between 2000 and 2002 the
Portishead Railway
The Portishead Railway is a branch line railway running from Portishead in North Somerset to the main line immediately west of Bristol, England. It was constructed by the Bristol & Portishead Pier and Railway Company, but it was always operated ...
was repaired and extended to the dock at a cost of £21 million.
Trades
Motor vehicles are both loaded and discharged, and stored on paved quay areas and storage compounds. In 2004, over 650,000 vehicles were handled. During 1996, the motor vehicle trade was awarded the International Quality Standard
ISO 9002
ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization.
ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance
* Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007
* Is ...
. Royal Portbury Dock can accommodate up to six
RoRo vessels simultaneously.
Aviation fuel tankers up to 120,000
dwt can discharge at the Bristol Aviation Fuel Terminal which opened in 2003, and feeds directly into the UK's pipeline and storage network.
Coal and other bulk cargoes can be discharged with two
continuous ship unloaders and two gantry grab cranes, allowing for 5,000 tonne per hour throughput.
Since 2013 the wings for the
Airbus A400M Atlas have left Portbury on 3 specialised
ferries including the
Ville De Bordeaux, after travelling from the factory at
Filton. They go via
St Nazaire to
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Penins ...
. This is part of the
Itinéraire à Grand Gabarit
The ''Itinéraire à Grand Gabarit'' is a water and road route that has been created in order to allow the transport of the outsize structural sections of the Airbus A380 airliner from their point of manufacture to Toulouse for final assembly. Th ...
transportation system.
Containers and Forest Products are also handled at the dock.
Technical
The port experiences the second largest tidal range in the world. The Portbury Dock, like Avonmouth Dock across the river, is impounded and the water level within each dock is maintained by lock gates and impounding pumps. The pumps maintain a minimum water level in the dock when water is lost to the sea through ships entering/exiting the dock.
[Pump Supplies ''www.pumpsupplies.co.uk'']
Pump supplies Case Study
", accessed 9 October 2019
See also
*
Port of Bristol
References
External links
The Bristol Port Company websiteUK Government DfT CasestudyPortishead and Bristol LifeboatPort of Bristol Authority archive collection
{{Transport in Bristol
History of Bristol
Transport in Bristol
Ports and harbours of Somerset
Ports and harbours of the Bristol Channel
Port of Bristol