The Construction of Port Talbot Tidal Harbour

        The construction of Port Talbot Tidal Harbour began in 1966 and was completed in 1970, creating the first dry-bulk terminal in the UK capable of accepting vessels of over 100,000 deadweight tonnes. The building of the breakwaters and the unloading jetty was undertaken by a consortium of Marples-Ridgway and Kier; the dredging was carried out by a consortium of K.L. Kalis and the Westminster Dredging Company, and the two original unloading appliances on the jetty were erected by Sir William Arrols.

       The main harbour breakwater is over 1¼ miles long, the lee breakwater one third of a mile long, and the amount of stone used in building both structures was in the region of 2¼ million tonnes. The breakwater core consists of stones of up to 2 tonnes each, and the intermediate stones vary between 3 tonnes and 6 tonnes. The main armouring on the south side of the main breakwater weighs anything up to 8 tonnes per stone.

       Most of the stone for construction of the breakwaters was obtained from the British Steel Corporation-owned quarry at Cornelly, and was transported to the harbour site in 35 tonne dumper trucks. To avoid congestion on the busy A48 trunk road, a private haul road 9 miles long and 12 metres wide was built between the quarry and the harbour, and this was completed in just eleven weeks.         

        Further supplies of stone were obtained from local quarries within the Neath Valley, and nearly 700,000 tonnes were transported to Port Talbot by train from quarries in Derbyshire.

        Built within the shelter of the harbour breakwaters, the unloading jetty is a steel-piled structure 518 metres long and 21 metres wide, with a 305 metre grab-discharge berth along the south side. The jetty incorporates almost 900 piles which, if laid end to end, would stretch for some 22 miles.

         A third unloading appliance was erected on the jetty in 1975, and an additional berth for self-discharge vessels was constructed on the jetty’s north side in 1989. Further dredging in 1996 deepened the harbour by 2.6 metres, thereby increasing the maximum size of ship which could be accommodated to 180,000 deadweight tonnes.