Grytviken Whaling Station

The Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands employed Galliford Try in a partnering arrangement to undertake the remediation of the Grytviken Whaling Station. The former whaling station fell into disuse in the 1960s and soon deteriorated as a result of the extremes of the climate. This left unsafe structures and the possibility of hazardous contaminants, especially asbestos and PCBs being released into the atmosphere.

The 50 man team on site had to be completely self-sufficient whilst carrying out the work. They were required to construct their own camp with accommodation and establish all life support services before the remediation work began. This included removing dangerous structures, 300 cubic metres of oil and over 3,000 cubic metres of asbestos from the station plus decontaminating and refloating three former whaling vessels which were submerged alongside the jetty, namely the Albatross, Dias and Petrel.

Funding was extremely limited so the first main task was to develop a safe and environmentally acceptable solution with the available budget. All works were successfully completed over three austral summer seasons.


Client: The Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Value: £6 million
Location: Grytviken, South Georgia



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