Difference the dry dock has made
Although the new dry dock did not attract as many of the major ship building contracts as was hoped, the structure has been used for repairing and fitting out ships.
Harland and Wolff have built oil tankers, though these have been of the relatively smaller Suezmax class. A Suezmax tanker has a maximum depth of 20m below the waterline when carrying a cargo of oil – this means it can navigate the Suez Canal safely.
The dry dock has provided jobs and helped boost the local economy.
How the work was done
To make sure that the money for the scheme stayed in the area, the contractor recruited locally from the large number of unemployed people then in Belfast and surrounding areas. Around 800 workers in total were hired.
Engineers chose steel sheet piles to construct the walls of the dock and to stabilise the ground before building the dock floor.
Sheet piles are long sections of steel with a vertical interlocking system. Workers fitted the piles together to create a continuous wall.
Sheet pile walls are often used to support excavations for basements and pump houses and to construct sea walls. They're designed to last a very long time.
The interlocking components - known as Peine piles - were brought in from Germany for the project. It's thought to be the first time they were used in the UK.
It took workers about a year to place all the piles. The dry dock itself was completed within 36 months.