Printer Friendly
Email a Friend
Unusual ’Hol Blank’ Takes Shape for Weser Ports
01 Nov 2006
An unusual new dredging and maintenance vessel, now being built for Weser Ports authorities, is designed to keep local water sites clear in the Bremen/ Bremerhaven universal port complex, which is rapidly nearing the end of its development potential. The 44m long and 10m wide Hol Blank is a water injection workboat (WIG) designed for the deeper basins which the development of facilities for bigger container ships is creating.
The dredger is urgently needed, officials said, particularly so because of the completion this year of Bremerhaven’s new Container Terminal 4, which is adding 1,700m of new quayside and a new 100m wide basin on an eventual 16.2m of water.Hol Blank
The old unit is also incapable of coping with the increased depth of the basin off CT4, designed to handle new mega boxships. Hol Blank will be able to operate in depths of 21m and will keep deeper main basins in Bremerhaven clear of sand and silt while Hol Deep will move inland to the shallower waters of Bremen.
The new water injection dredger is being built at Lloyd Werft in Bremerhaven (LWB), best known for its specialist repair, conversion and completion work. Costing €4.4m, it is for delivery expected in the first quarter of next year.
It draws off water from higher layers and uses a tube fitted with jets to inject it into the water bed of facilities where mud and fine sand beds are present, creating a turbidity current of higher density than the surrounding water and moving bed material in its own current.
By TOM TODD
Images for this article - click to enlarge
All images copyright © Mercator Media 2008
Related products
For more information on products mentioned within this article visit
