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Dredge Deeper for 'Queen Mary 2'
01 Jun 2004
Ever since its maiden voyage in January, Cunard 's new flagship liner Queen Mary 2 has been challenging the dredged depths of many ports where it has been scheduled to call.
The QM2 's maiden voyage to the global cruise epicentre of Ft Lauderdale in Florida went without dredging difficulty but a subsequent visit to Rio de Janeiro to coincide with its famous Carnival was not possible and, more recently, scheduled calls at Gibraltar and Cadiz in Spain were cancelled because facilities with sufficient alongside depth could not be arranged.
However, the Port of Rotterdam, which hopes to attract more cruise ship calls to its Wilhelminakade cruise terminal, has no intention of not accommodating the QM2 'sscheduled arrival on 21 July.
The Port will launch a dredging programme which will take the alongside depth at Wilhelminakade from 10.65m to 12.65m.
The QM2 has already called at the Port of New York and New Jersey and will continue to be a frequent visitor there. Dredged depth is unlikely to ever be a problem in New York as earlier this month the Port Authority and the US Army Corps of Engineers launched a $1.6 billion project to deepen the Port's channels to 15.25m.
The channel deepening programme is scheduled for completion in 2014 but Port and USACE officials pledged to accelerate the timetable if possible, as the primary purpose of the deepening is to accommodate the next generation of 8,000 teu container ships.
MJ Information No: 19539
