Subsidiaries of Dutch dredging and marine contractor Van Oord and Dredging International in Belgium have been awarded a second contract for the Western Basin Main Works Dredging at the Port of Gladstone, Queensland, Australia.
The contract, which was signed on the 12 May 2011 and awarded by Gladstone Ports Corporation, involves the dredging of Parcels 1, 3 and 4 for the Western Basin Development. The value of the contract is €415m (A$545m).
The first contract for the same Western Basin Development, which was signed on 4 March 2011, involved the works contained in Parcel 5, to the sum of A$260m.
The work included in Parcels 1, 3 and 4 includes the dredging of various channels, swing basins and bypass channels to -13m LAT for the access to the various berth pockets, embarkation docks and material offloading facilities.
A total volume of 18.5m cu/m will be dredged, of which about 2m cu/m will be disposed of at the East Bank Spoil Ground, at a sailing distance of 45km, and 16.5m cu/m will be pumped ashore at the Western Basin reclamation area to create a new port area for the Port of Gladstone adjacent to the existing Fisherman’s Landing reclamation area.
Dredging work will start after the completion of the first contract (Parcel 5) in March 2012 and will be completed in December 2014. A heavy duty cutter suction dredger with floating booster stations and a large trailing suction hopper dredger will be deployed to execute this important dredging assignment. Particular attention will be given to environmental management and management of the potential acid sulphate soil in the reclamation area. All environmental and dredging plans are verified and permits are in place.
The dredging of the Western Basin Dredging Project will facilitate the export of the LNG produced at the facilities under construction in Gladstone.
