ABP Awards Transas VTS Contract

Transas Marine (UK) Ltd. has recently gained a contract to supply a Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) system for Associated British Port’s (ABP) South Wales Ports - Cardiff, Barry, Newport, Swansea and Port Talbot. The contract was awarded by ABP South Wales after extensive market assessment and a comprehensive tendering procedure. The Transas VTS system meets ABP’s primary requirements and responsibilities as the Statutory Harbour Authority for its ports, which are the management of shipping, the safety of navigation for all harbour users and the protection of the marine environment. The new system will support ABP by providing the duty Marine Officer with navigational information such as vessel position, vessel movements, timings and speed. The VTS system also collects and records data to support ABP, as the Statutory Harbour Authority, in maintaining emergency procedures/contingency plans and reporting and investigating oil pollution incidents. The system offers a fully compliant and low risk solution for ABP. It complies with the IALA VTS Guidelines, all applicable IMO conventions, including SOLAS Chapter V, Regulation 8-2, and takes full account of the Port Marine Safety Code. The system will provide a flexible, user-friendly and reliable VTS solution that will seamlessly integrate all four radars, and data from the Port of Bristol’s VTS. This means ABP will be able to work with the Port of Bristol Authority in providing a comprehensive service to all users in Swansea Bay and on the Severn Estuary from Nash Point to the second Severn Crossing. It will include dual Zetron touch screen VHF control systems, eight CCTV cameras located in each of the ports which will be controlled centrally from Cardiff, two VTS Slave Displays (one located in the Swansea and one in the Barry Pilot Office), a VTS data management database, VHF/telephone recording equipment, and full independent data recording and playback capability. All the hardware to be used is Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) and the software is from Transas’s tried and tested Navi-Harbour 3000 range, which is currently being used by over 50 customers as diverse as the US Navy and Coastguard, local/national government agencies, and all types of small, medium and large statutory harbour authorities around the world.