By
Rebecca Gibson |
Liverpool City Council in the UK has commissioned an international team to develop a concept design for a permanent cruise terminal building at the former Princes Jetty.
The international consultancy team will be led by Liverpool-based Arup and include representatives from KKA Architecture, Royal Haskoning DHV Engineering and cost consultants Turner and Townsend. The team also intends to employ local graduates and apprentices to help contribute to the long-term success of Liverpool as a city.
Together, the companies will develop a fully costed plan for a terminal capable of handling 3,600 embarking and disembarking passengers with baggage – three times as many as the existing facility. The site would include facilities for passport control, a passenger lounge, a café, toilets, a taxi rank, a vehicle collection point, a coach layover area and a car park.
“We are delighted to have been awarded the contract – we’re a Liverpool-based team and it really helps that we understand the strategic context of this project and its importance to the city region economy,” said Garry Banks, director of Arup and project director for the team. “The current facility has delivered an award-winning service and it’s now our challenge to look at how we can deliver a permanent cruise terminal design that ensures Liverpool can continue to deliver an award-winning cruise experience and capitalise on this growing sector whilst accommodating larger ships with greater passenger turnaround.”
Since Liverpool became a turnaround facility in 2012, the number of vessels visiting the city have almost doubled from 31 to 61. Passenger numbers are up from 38,656 in 2012 to an expected 86,365 this year. In 2015, the cruise industry generated an estimated £7 million for the city’s economy, up from £1.3 million when it was a port of call destination.
It is expected that a new terminal could help to make the city more attractive to cruise operators and boost visitor numbers. Cunard Line, which describes Liverpool as its ‘spiritual home’, said that the new terminal could lead to it reintroducing transatlantic crossings from Liverpool to the US, which last took place regularly in 1968.
“I am determined to see huge continued growth in the cruise liner industry in Liverpool and to do that, we need a permanent building to replace the facility we have at the moment which has limited space,” said Joe Anderson, Mayor of Liverpool. “We are now commissioning detailed plans which will give us a clear picture of how much of a commitment we are going to have to make. Clearly there will be a cost to the construction of the facility, but the figures speak for themselves in terms of the economic boost we get from cruises coming to the city.”