Ship Thickness Measurement on the Tyne at Newcastle

Inspection services for ships at Newcastle upon Tyne

Each service has its own page with the method, the class requirements and what the report contains.

Yards, quays and terminals for gauging on the Tyne and Tees

At the Hebburn yard, gauging is planned around the docking programme. The yard's planners, the class surveyor and the owner's superintendent agree the TM plan, the team works through tanks and holds as they are cleaned and ventilated, and readings showing substantial corrosion go back to the surveyor and the yard as they are found, so steel renewal can be scoped while the ship is still in dock. Shell plating is reached from the dock floor, and the double bottom is usually the critical path.

On the river quays and at Teesport, work is in service. Car carriers at the Port of Tyne berth for loading and sail on schedule, so the scope is chosen for what can be reached in that time. Offshore and construction vessels lying in the river between projects can be gauged without that pressure, including the deck foundations for cranes, A-frames and cable carousels that see heavy cyclic load. Chemical tankers at the Tees jetties are worked within each terminal's permit system, which usually means deck and piping alongside and tank entry only in a gas-free window. Offshore vessel inspection on the river quays is the most flexible work in the region, because the ship has nowhere to be.

• Hebburn ship-repair yard drydocks — a tank-by-tank TM programme run to the docking schedule, with findings passed to the yard while there is still time to renew.
• Port of Tyne vehicle terminal — ramps, hinge lugs, hoistable decks and weather-deck plating on car carriers during loading.
• North Shields ferry terminal — vehicle-deck, ramp and bow structure checks on the Amsterdam ro-pax, timed around the ship's port stay.
• River quays for offshore and construction vessels — crane, A-frame and carousel foundation crack detection and deck gauging between projects.
• Teesport and the Tees jetties — deck and piping gauging on chemical and product tankers and bulk carriers, under each terminal's permit rules.
• Port of Blyth and Port of Sunderland — in-service gauging on offshore wind support vessels and bulk and general cargo ships.

Regulation and market drivers on England's north-east coast

Both rivers fall within the North Sea SOx Emission Control Area, where the sulphur cap is 0.10%. Car carriers and ferries on North Sea routes have worked to the 0.10% limit since it took effect in the ECA in 2015, and scrubber piping on the ships that fitted systems is now well into its service life. Port state control is the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's job here as elsewhere in the UK: the country left the EU but not the Paris MoU, and inspects on that basis under its own legislation.

The market here is driven by energy and by the region's manufacturing exports. Offshore wind farms off the north-east coast and in the southern North Sea bring construction, cable and service vessels into the river; the subsea engineering cluster on the Tyne keeps construction vessels calling; and car exports keep a regular stream of car carriers on the river. Teesside's chemical and process industries add tankers to the mix. The Tyne also has a long P&I connection: the North of England P&I Association was founded in Newcastle, and the club formed by its merger, NorthStandard, still works from the city, so condition questions on older ships are often asked here.

Ships trading to Newcastle upon Tyne are inside a sulphur emission control area, where fuel must not exceed 0.10% sulphur unless an exhaust gas cleaning system (scrubber) is fitted. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it are among the fastest-corroding parts of a modern ship, so they belong in the gauging scope at every docking and, on open-loop systems, between dockings.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Newcastle upon Tyne

The sequence for a thickness measurement job at Newcastle upon Tyne is short and written down, so the yard, the surveyor and the superintendent know who arranges what.

Newcastle International Airport is the usual arrival point, with connections through London and European hubs; Teesside International Airport serves the Tees side on a smaller route network. Yard, terminal and quay access is ISPS-controlled, and passes are arranged in advance by the ship's agent or, for dockings, by the yard. Our technicians travel from India on UK visas, so for docking work we lock in dates as soon as the yard confirms the slot, and for in-service work we use the ferry timetable or car carrier rotation to pick the call.

• Send the vessel name or IMO number, ship type, class society, the survey due (annual, intermediate, renewal survey number, CAP or owner's condition survey), the port and dates, and the scope you expect.
• We confirm the scope against the class rules for that survey, prepare the thickness measurement plan with frame and section references, and say whether the measurement will be credited to a class survey.
• Mobilisation is planned around visa lead times and the vessel's schedule; the ship's agent arranges port access, and the yard or ship arranges staging, lighting, ventilation and gas-free certificates.
• Gauging with calibrated ultrasonic thickness gauges: through sound coatings only where the gauge's through-coating mode has been verified on a coated reference, otherwise on cleaned bare steel, with every reading tied to its frame, strake and location on the sketch.
• Readings are compared with original thicknesses as work proceeds; substantial and excessive corrosion and any cracks are reported to the attending surveyor and the superintendent the same day.
• The final report is issued on the class thickness-measurement formats with sketches, a summary of locations exceeding the allowable margins, piping tables where piping was in scope, and the gauge calibration and technician certificates.

Related