Drone Filming an Award-Winning Marine Project: ABP Solent Gateway's Falklands Jetty Upgrade

Solent Sky Services was commissioned by Associated British Ports to capture film and photography of the Phase 2 marine infrastructure upgrade at ABP Solent Gateway's Falklands Jetty in Marchwood - the content underpinning the project's award submission to the Institution of Civil Engineers. The submission went on to win at the ICE South East Awards. The Falklands Jetty at ABP Solent Gateway, on Southampton Water, is a piece of marine infrastructure with national significance. Marchwood is a designated Strategic Military Port supporting the UK Ministry of Defence, and the jetty also serves a growing range of commercial operations. ABP's £17.5 million Phase 2 marine infrastructure project future-proofed the 40-year-old jetty for at least another 40 years - and was put forward for recognition at the Institution of Civil Engineers Awards. Our work on the project involved: - Film and photo coverage of the Phase 2 marine infrastructure works at Falklands Jetty - Capturing the scale and complexity of the engineering for an industry-expert audience - Producing content tailored for use in the ICE Awards submission - Working within a restricted, security-sensitive port environment This was a noticeably different kind of brief to our cruise work. Awards submissions are judged by engineers, not by general audiences - the imagery has to communicate the scale, the technical achievement and the quality of execution clearly and credibly. That informed our approach throughout, from the angles we flew to the level of detail we captured. Working at Marchwood also brought a higher bar on access and security. As a designated Strategic Military Port, it's not a site that can be filmed casually - and our established relationship with ABP, our CAA permissions and our safety record gave the client confidence we could operate appropriately within that environment. The project went on to win the Best Project - Asset Maintenance Award at the ICE South East Awards, recognising ABP and its partners Boskalis Westminster, Knights Brown and Ramboll.