Works set to start on Birnbeck Pier next week

Work to restore Birnbeck Pier will continue next week with North Somerset Council’s contractor Mackley on site from Monday (2 February) in preparation for works to start on the pier itself.

Double-stacked office cabins will arrive next week with a 100-tonne Long Reach excavator planned to arrive by mid-February. This will shortly be followed by a 100-tonne crane which will begin works to the foreshore and first Pier.

Later this year, a long-reach excavator with a cherry picker and a second larger crane (160 tonnes) will arrive by barge from Wales, where the pier itself will start to be repaired.  

Initial works include installing temporary workers access down to the shoreline and completing masonry repairs either side of the pier. Loose material such as timber decking will be removed and the innermost bays will be rebuilt. Scaffolding around the pier’s trestle legs will also start to take place.

In Mid-May, a large 650-tonne mobile crane is expected to arrive on site for the first of the deck spans to be installed.

As a result, Birnbeck Pier car park, located on Birnbeck Road, will be closed from Monday (2 February) to enable Mackley to start these works safely. 

Works have already started on the landside of the pier including repairing and renovating landside buildings, setting up provision of essential services and infrastructure to support the whole site whilst restoration is underway and repairs completed to the island sea wall. These works are being undertaken by Smith and Brenson.

The 1888 boat house, the clock tower pavilion and landside cliff face were also all stabilised in works undertaken in 2024.   

The work to the pier structure will be undertaken by North Somerset Council’s contractor Mackley, a specialist civil engineering contractor with extensive experience and expertise of working in a marine environment and with heritage structures. 

Cllr Mark Canniford, North Somerset Council’s Cabinet Member responsible for the Birnbeck Project said: “This is the next exciting step in Birnbeck Pier’s restoration. Our contractor Mackley is about to start restoring the pier itself and will be setting up onsite on the promenade next to the Pier and in Birnbeck Pier car park, which will be closed to the public. The pier works are expected to be completed by summer 2027. We’d like to thank everyone for their patience whilst restoration works are underway.”

Andy Bosman, Project Manager at Mackley said: “We’re pleased to be working on the restoration of Birnbeck Pier, a nationally significant historic structure. The early stages of the project will focus on site set-up and preparatory activities, with works carefully planned around weather, tides and the constraints of the marine environment. Birnbeck Pier is a complex heritage asset, and we’ll be taking a phased and considered approach as the project progresses, working closely with North Somerset Council to help secure the long-term future of this iconic landmark.”

This phase of the Birnbeck Pier restoration project has been made possible thanks to £15,544,799 in total from The National Lottery Heritage Fund (made up of a recent grant of £5,544,799 added to the £10m previously awarded in October 2024), in addition to funding from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the UK government and Historic England. This brings the total of external funding secured for the restoration of the Birnbeck Pier structure to over £20m, reflecting the national significance of the project.

To find out more about the Birnbeck Pier project, visit the information hub next to the pier or the council’s website at www.n-somerset.gov.uk/BirnbeckPierProject.