Scheldt dredging to be completed more quickly than first planned – by David Foxwell
Dredging has finally got underway on the Dutch parts of the River Scheldt. Dredging on the Flanders (Belgian) side of the river was completed in 2007, but dredging on the Dutch side of the river has been long delayed.
The dredging programme now underway will mean that deeper draught vessels can access Port of Antwerp and will also lengthen the tidal window for vessels which navigate to the port via the River Scheldt.
Describing the start of work as historic, Antwerp Port Authority CEO Eddy Bruyninckx said. ‘This dredging programme is extremely important for the port of Antwerp because it will allow us to have a more dominant position in the schedule of the biggest container vessels calling north-west European ports.’
The work was originally due to be completed in approximately 24 months, but Hilde Crevits, the Flemish Minister for Mobility & Public Works, recently announced that the work will be completed in one year at the most.
‘There is a formal undertaking on the part of Flanders, The Netherlands and the dredging company to finish the work within one year at the latest, hopefully even before the end of this year’, Minister Crevits declared. Dredging work on the Dutch side was started in February by Jan de Nul’s Manzanillo II.
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