Weather-resilient operations at the Port of Felixstowe
Client:
The Port of Felixstowe
Owned and operated
by Hutchinson Ports,
a subsidiary of CK Hutchinson
Holdings Ltd.
Deliverable:
A bespoke weather service maintaining the safe operation of the
port while supporting productivity and reducing downtime.
Outcomes:
Our service helps Felixstowe continue to operate safely, efficiently and effectively and maintain its position as the busiest container port in the UK.
The Challenge
Being an Island Nation, Ports play a vital role in supporting the UKs international trade. Due to its location and deep bathymetry, the Port of Felixstowe is the UK’s largest container port, handling around half of all UK containerised trade. In 2021 it became part of Freeport East, along with Harwich international Port, to encourage further economic growth in the area. Through its highly advantageous location, it provides an open channel not only to Europe but the whole world.
In such a busy environment, keeping operations on schedule while maintaining safety is a priority. The world saw what happened during one such shipping delay when the Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal. This resulted in a 6-day delay and a queue of 369 ships, stranding an estimated £7.76 billion worth of global trade.
Any issues at the port may cause road, rail and sea backlogs with serious implications. Strong winds, lightning, high waves, snow, and poor visibility can all cause periods of disruption for ports, so minimising their impact is of utmost importance. Integrating a reliable, accurate and personable weather service is key to safe and efficient port operations.
“Freeport East [Felixstowe, Harwich, and Gateway 14] is the perfect location to develop a new Freeport. Its position on the main global shipping routes, and with frequent services over to Europe, makes it the ideal place to attract inward investment. It has 50% of the UK’s offshore wind capacity on its doorstep and, working with our partners, we will help drive developments in green energy for use in the transport sector as well as across the wider economy”
Clemence Cheng, Hutchinson Ports Executive Director
PortQuest
WeatherQuest has been continuously supporting Felixstowe since 2001 with our multidimensional PortQuest service, optimised for Ports and the Marine sector. The service has been extensively co-designed with Felixstowe colleagues and other PortQuest clients. The service provides 24/7 forecast support for all critical atmospheric and ocean variables, including wind speed and gust at crane heights, visibility, lightning risk, significant wave height and wave period for the pilot locations. Alongside this, the client’s real-time port measurement data is used to verify all the site-specific forecasts within PortQuest, leading to forecast improvements through machine learning. Our highly-skilled forecasters proactively monitor each client’s location and if key parameters exceed critical values, further warnings are disseminated on the PortQuest portal, via email and SMS text messages and via a phone call from the forecaster.
The Outcomes
Squall Watch
In cases where there is a consistent spell of adverse weather, our service helps Felixstowe determine the best course of action and identify when there are breaks in the conditions that allow work to safely continue. For example, some of our most common calls to Felixstowe concern wind and squall watches, alerting them to the time a band of squally winds and potential heavy rain will pass through. This helps port operations continue until weather conditions reach critical thresholds and bring operations to a temporary halt. Our service helps combine productivity and safety in the port environment to optimal effect.
Forecast Outlook
One important forecasting example occurred in 2018, when the Felixstowe Portmaster Health and Safety and Environmental Manager called our forecasters seeking a 10-15 day windspeed outlook. This was to help determine whether they could commit to a period of work bringing in a specialised barge-based crane from Rotterdam that could be used to upgrade the capability of the other Felixstowe cranes. Significant costs would be incurred if the work could not be completed by the barge following transit to Felixstowe, not only from the ‘renting’ of the barge but also in connection with the associated logistics at Felixstowe. With the help of our forecast, the work went ahead as planned enabling the cranes to be upgraded, enhancing Felixstowe’s longer term capability.
Critical Weather
Our service helps the Port of Felixstowe ensure the health and safety of the port environment and maintain ISO 45001 Health and Safety Management certification. Crane movements, working at height and movement of vessels in and around the port during variable weather conditions must all occur in a safe way. Our forecasts and active interventions allow the onsite coordinators to ensure the weather does not pose a threat to any of the workforce. If any critical weather thresholds are reached or exceeded, the Felixstowe staff can plan around them, combining productivity and safety to best effect.
