DEME secures €150m in dredging contracts
The Belgian dredging, environmental and marine engineering group DEME has recently secured several international dredging contracts with a total contract value of €150m.
Commissioned by the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), DEME will dredge a side channel 9.5km long, 250m wide and 18.5m deep, providing access to the eastern part of Port Said. The dredgers Congo River and Nile River will execute the deepening works in a project carried out by a consortium comprised of DEME’s Dredging International and the Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company of the USA, which undertook Lot 6 for the expansion of the Suez Canal earlier in 2015. Port Said is one of Egypt’s most important ports on the Mediterranean. Thanks to the new eastern side canal, ships sailing to and from Port Said will no longer interfere with maritime convoys on the nearby Suez Canal.
In Panama, DEME will work take on an assignment for Autoridad Canal de Panama (ACP) on the further widening and deepening of the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal, where DEME has previously worked between 2009 and 2012. The planned maintenance work will be carried out by the TSHD Lange Wapper while the CSD D’Artagnan will perform deepening dredging works meant to facilitate the increasing shipping traffic and the arrival of larger Post-Panamax ships transiting the connecting canal. The existing entrance southbound of the Americas Bridge will be broadened over a distance of 7km by 37m on both sides.
Meanwhile, DEME has also won an important contract for facilitating access to Mersin International Port (MIP) on the Mediterranean in southern Turkey. The contract will be executed with MIP, which is a joint venture between the Port of Singapore Authority and the Turkish infrastructure investment holding Akfen.
The container terminal in Mersin International Port is currently under expansion. As a result, the port will receive more and bigger ships with deeper draught. DEME’s dredging works, to be carried out by the vessels Amazone and Uilenspiegel will extend into the second quarter of 2016. They will improve accessibility through the widening and deepening of the approach channel and the turning circle as well as the basin and berth approach channel.
By Larz Bourne
