By order of HM Royal Navy

 

GSS Marine Services was founded with the aim of providing high quality plant and labour to the Royal Navy and, though its range has expanded to include a wide variety of civil work, naval contracts still play an important role in its success.

 

Our experience in facilities management stems from our long standing relationship with the Ministry of Defence (MOD). As a prime contractor for the Faslane Facility (nuclear submarine base) we are often called upon to complete a wide range of marine work.

 

Other areas of facilities management include maintenance of aids to navigation for ports, harbours and local lighthouse authorities. Works include on off repair of buoys/beacons to complete maintenance programs for all of the customer’s assets.

 

Our operations include but are not limited to:

  • Waste management
  • Quayside refurbishment/maintenance (including static fender services)
  • Installation, repair and maintenance of aids to navigation (buoys and beacons)
  • Maintenance of other floating assets including mooring buoys and fenders
  • Cathodic repairs, refurbishment and replacement

 

We specialise in areas of high importance such as nuclear sites and areas that are environmentally sensitive.

 

 

Examples of Royal Navy contracts

 

GSS recently undertook a complex contract to install subsea power and communication cables to the Valiant Jetty at HMNB Faslane.

 

Cables up to 120mm in diameter were pulled through a number of confined spaces, involving tight turns, before being laid along the seabed and onshore. Once debris from a previous jetty demolition had been cleared from the seabed, a suitable bed layer was laid to accommodate the cable, and revetment works and rock armour were installed in the tidal zone and onshore. The whole contract required an unusual degree of precision and ingenuity, but was completed on time and to the client’s satisfaction.

 

Other recent work includes repairs to steelwork and pipework at HMNB Clyde, involving removal of redundant pipework without disturbing remaining essential service pipes. A 20 metre section of gantry and walkway was also removed and replaced, using several workboats and specialised lifting equipment. Throughout the entire operation the jetty remained in use.

 

Working around shipping movements was also a feature of piling work at HMNB Coulport, where unforeseen problems with rock strata forced GSS to come up with inventive drilling and piling solutions to meet the original brief – all without interfering with shipping movements at a busy naval base.