Thursday 8 January 09 - 06:53
 

Dredging

Spring Cleaning for Port of Felixstowe

Westminster Dredging, UK subsidiary of Dutch giant Royal Boskalis Westminster, has been undertaking a typical maintenance dredging contract to benefit the berths and approaches of Felixstowe and Harwich International Port.

The hopper suction dredger ‘Oranje’ is seen working at Felixstowe in April.
The hopper suction dredger ‘Oranje’ is seen working at Felixstowe in April.

In works which took place throughout most of April the trailing suction hopper dredger ‘Oranje’, assisted by the ‘Argonaut’, the plough dredger ‘Norma’ and the survey craft ‘Shamrock’ were working in the Haven.

The dredged materials were disposed of at Harwich Shelf and the Inner Gabbard Spoil Ground.

Oranje was built in 2004 by IHC Holland Merwede to Classification B.V I HULL MACH AUT-UMS, unrestricted navigation, dredging over 15 miles from shore. The 18,500gt vessel has a hopper capacity of 15,850m3. This is a fairly large vessel for maintenance dredging works, the substantial capacity of its hopper enhancing productivity with each return sailing to the disposal ground.

The following month HHA advised mariners that for ten days in May, the smaller dredger ‘Barent Zanen’ (9,773gt) and survey craft Shamrock would be carrying out maintenance dredging to the berths and approaches of Felixstowe.

Images for this article - click to enlarge

The

Unless otherwise stated, all images copyright © Mercator Media 2008. This does not exclude the owner's assertion of copyright over the material.

TaylotFuel_Skyscraper_0508