PORTLAND Port says it is off to a 'flying start' for the new year as it welcomes lots of marine traffic – and prepares for the world's biggest cruise ships.

Following a year in which it marked 20 years as a private port and continued its cruise ship boom, port chiefs are looking forward to a prosperous 2017.

A major project for the port this year is the completion of the extension to the main cruise berth at the outer coaling pier.

The new facility, due to be completed in the spring, will further strengthen the port’s position by being able to accommodate vessels with length overall's (LOA) of more than 340 metres.

Portland will be one of only a few English Channel ports that will have this, and will be able to accommodate some of the biggest cruise ships in operation.

It can already handle vessels up to 300m LOA.

The extension is a major engineering project with the average pile being 27 metres long.

'Several years' of planning and negotiations have led to this project, including discussions with cruise line customers.

Once finished, it will boast a new suite of mooring bollards, high capacity pneumatic floating fenders and a minimum water depth of 9.6m CD. There are also plans to increase the minimum water depth to 10 metres.

Meanwhile, most berths are occupied at the port at the start of 2017.

Ships alongside vary greatly in size, from the tug Norne, which accompanied the barge Cable Enterprise into port earlier this week, to the panamax size bulk carrier, Emerald Star, which is nearly 230m long and arrived from South America last weekend.

The port has seen deliveries of both animal feeds and cement already this year, whilst there has been a steady flow of ships into the harbour to take on fuel from the bunker terminal.

Ian McQuade, General Manager – Commercial, said: “It has been a busy start to the new year and it has been good to see so much activity within the port.

"We hope that this is the start of another strong year for Portland Port as we continue to look to grow our client base and expand our operations.”

Portland Port celebrated its 20th anniversary as a private port in 2016 and is now looking to build on the success of those first 20 years with what has been described as "a number of exciting projects in the pipeline".