J3574 : Digger, Titanic Quarter, Belfast (November 2014)

taken 9 years ago, near to Belfast, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland

Digger, Titanic Quarter, Belfast (November 2014)
Digger, Titanic Quarter, Belfast (November 2014)
There is still a large area of former shipyard land, between the Queen’s Road, here J3574 : Car showroom, Belfast and the Harland & Wolff building dock, undeveloped. Part is due to become the Olympic House site. The remainder is in the process of being tidied and levelled off. Now fenced, the site was previously hidden behind this wall J3574 : Old shipyard wall, Belfast and J3574 : Wall, Sydenham Road.
The Titanic Quarter, Belfast

A selection of photographs showing some of the buildings and the undeveloped sites in the Titanic Quarter, Belfast. The area includes 185 acres of the former Harland & Wolff shipyard. The new buildings cover a range of uses including apartments, offices, hotel, a college, the Public Record Office for Northern Ireland and the “Titanic Belfast”.

The Harland and Wolff Building Dock, Belfast :: J3575

The building dock in Belfast was constructed between 1968-1970 by George Wimpey & Company for the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. A massive 556 metres long by 93 metres wide, it was designed for the construction of massive crude oil tankers and bulkers. Although many ships were constructed here, including two supertankers of 172,174 tonnes (343,423 DWT), the yard was in decline by the early 1970s and the dock never really fulfilled its potential. The last ship to be constructed was the 'Anvil Point' in 2003 and the yard now specialising in ship repair and the emerging renewable energies sector, notably offshore wind turbines and tidal energy projects.
Towering above the dock are the two gantry cranes 'Samson' and 'Goliath'. Now landmarks on the Belfast skyline, the cranes were designed for the yard by the German firm Krupp. Goliath, completed in 1969 and mostly fabricated by the yard, stands at 96 metres and Samson, completed in 1974 and built entirely by Krupp, is taller at 106 metres. Both cranes have a span of 140m and have a safe working load of 840 tonnes each (though I believe were tested for 1,000 which caused the top girders to bend downwards by some 11 inches). They run on 800m of track which spans the length of the dock and each crane has 64 special anti-friction bearing mounted wheels.
Both the dock and the cranes are now protected scheduled monuments. See LinkExternal link for technical information .

LinkExternal link in an informative video from the BBC.

Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Albert Bridge and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Loading map... (JavaScript required)
Grid Square
J3574, 516 images   (more nearby search)
Photographer
Date Taken
Saturday, 1 November, 2014   (more nearby)
Submitted
Saturday, 1 November, 2014
Geographical Context
Derelict, Disused  Construction, Development 
Place (from Tags)
Belfast 
Subject Location
Irish: geotagged! J 352 748 [100m precision]
WGS84: 54:36.2105N 5:54.5040W
Camera Location
Irish: geotagged! J 351 747
View Direction
Northeast (about 45 degrees)
Clickable map
+

Other Tags
Titanic Quarter  Vacant Site  Development Site  Harland & Wolff  Cranes  Dock  Digger  Mechanical Digger 

Click a tag, to view other nearby images.

Image classification(about): Supplemental image
This page has been viewed about 78 times.
View this location: KML (Google Earth) · Google MapsExternal link · Bing MapsExternal link · Geograph Coverage Map · geotagged! More Links for this image
Background for photo viewing: White / /
NW N NE
W Go E
SW S SE
thumbs up icon
[Mark
You are not logged in login | register