The Holyhead port will remain closed till January 15 at the earliest.

One of the UK’s busiest ports will remain closed until January 15 after it was damaged Thunderstormit has been announced.

Holyhead on Anglesey was originally due to reopen. December 20But the port said the Terminal 3 and Terminal 5 ferry berths would need to remain closed to prioritize safety.

The extended closure follows two incidents affecting Terminal 3 berths on December 6 and 7, which resulted in the collapse of part of the structure, which the port said was unusable.

The port apologized for the disruption to the main sea route between North Wales and Dublin in Ireland, but said it was still assessing the full extent of the damage.

It follows uncertainty over whether the port will reopen before Christmas, and Irish Prime Minister Taoiseach Simon Harris said On Monday It was “highly unlikely”.

However, the Welsh Government said on Monday it was optimistic it would open by December 20.

There are four daily ferries between Holyhead and Dublin, operated by Stena Line and Irish Ferries.

An average of two million passengers use Holyhead a year and around 1,200 lorries and trailers cross each day.

The closure had already rocked Ireland’s national postal service. Abandon plans to use Holyhead for Christmas delivery..

The president of the Irish Road Haulage Association, Ger Hyland, said he was not surprised by the ongoing closures, but it was “detrimental” to his members and the Irish and Welsh economies.

“We are now traveling hundreds of miles further, paying higher ferry costs due to the lack of available routes,” Mr Hyland said.

“This means a huge commercial cost to the industry that won’t be seen until after Christmas,” he added.

Stena Line apologized for the inconvenience and said it was doing everything possible to minimize the impact of the outage.

In a statement, the ferry operators said it was offering additional sailings from Dublin to its ports at Birkenhead, Fishguard and Heysham, as well as from Belfast to Cairnryan to support trade and passenger flows.

The closure of the port came as Storm Dara battered the UK with gusts of up to 93 mph (150 km/h).

High winds damaged Terminals 3 and 5, and the port said underwater inspections to begin remedial works were delayed until Tuesday, Dec. 10, once the storm passed.

A Welsh Government spokesman said the closure was being managed through a coordinated effort between itself, the Port Authority, Stena Line, Irish Ferries, and the Isle of Anglesey Council to “ensure public safety and minimize disruption”. can be reduced from