Sea ferry company, Stena has now abandoned its original terminal, at the city centre periphery, and moved two miles along Belfast Lough.

The new three-storey £37m Victoria Terminal 4 (VT4) has now been built at the edge of Belfast Port.

Operations switched last night, and the first sailing from VT4 was the 7.35am HSS Stena Voyager on Wednesday.

The new facility is of 25,000 sq ft and was built on reclaimed land at the seaward end of the harbour - accessible from the Fortwilliam junction of the M2.

The ground was compacted and the new land mass protected from the sea by a quayside built on piles, which have been sunk 70ft into the seabed.

The new terminal is next door to Norfolkline's Liverpool ferry and will handle both the HSS fast ferry and Stena Caledonia, the 28-year-old conventional ferry which still plies the route.

Also, once a £2.5m four-lane two-kilometre long highway link is opened from the motorway - at the end of this year - getting to and from the ferry should be even more straightforward.

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And the 32-acre site on which VT4 is being built also provides more parking space for the storage of unaccompanied lorry trailers which are in transit.

Given that a third of the 140,000 freight vehicles which Stena handles each year are unaccompanied, this is an important consideration.

It was a substantial construction contract, site work on VT4 began last March and there were about 110 workers on site at any one time.

John Mariner, Project Manager for lead contractor McLaughlin & Harvey, it went to schedule, as has been shown by the opening on time.

The VT4 project is funded by Belfast Harbour Commissioners, but will ultimately be paid for in the form of annual rental by Stena under the terms of a 20-year lease.

"We are very excited to see the project taking shape," said Joe O'Neill, Commercial Director at the Port of Belfast.

"At a cost of £37m this is the largest single development project we have ever undertaken, but we believe there will be many benefits for Stena and its customers."

Meanwhile, the Stena Voyager itself has just undergone a £2m refit, most of which was focused on the passenger areas, so the vessel will be even more comfortable as far as passengers are concerned.

The recently completed refurbishment was carried out at Holyhead by MJM Marine from Rathfriland.

The new terminal is also part of a £60m investment on the route, which will result in Stena leaving its long-established home in Stranraer and move in with P&O six miles up Lough Ryan at an expanded Cairnryan port.

See: Stena To Set Sail With £37m Terminal

(BMcC)