LONDON, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Britain's Ministry of Defence (MOD) hailed on Saturday the completion of the refurbishment of a historic jetty at Britain's Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth as a major milestone in preparation for the arrival of the biggest warships ever built for the Royal Navy.
The jetty, parts of which date back over 90 years ago, has been refurbished to prepare for the first of the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers.
"The completed jetty is a crucial element of the infrastructure package delivered to support the arrival of the carriers into their homeport of Portsmouth," Philip Wise, the project manager, said.
In order to prepare the port for new warships, the building of the jetty was coupled with the dredging of the approach channel, the inner harbor area and the berth.
With the jetty completed, the next phase includes a series of trials to familiarize the port crew with the new facility.
The trials started this weekend with the arrival of the 40,000-ton United States Naval Ship Robert E. Peary to test the related processes and equipment.
