VIDEO – Dredgers create island wildlife haven

The fairway between Szczecin and Świnoujście has been deepened to 12.5 metres and widened by 100 metres, and now can accommodate the world’s largest ships.

The widening work entailed bank and quay reinforcement, shore protection, cable and navigational aids relocation and underwater reinforcements.

DEME called on its cutter suction dredger Amazone and Meuse River as well as its dual-fual trailing suction hopper dredger Scheldt River to carry out the works.

Van Oord deployed trailing suction hopper dredgers Vox Amalia and HAM317.

The islands, created out of around 24 million m³ of dredged material and sub-surface rock revetments, are now home to some of Europe’s most endangered bird species.

Jointly financed by the Maritime Office in Szczecin and the European Union, the project began in 2018 and had to get over hurdles such as the Covid-19 lockdowns, winter conditions and extensive unexploded ordnance removal along the channel, which had been heavily bombarded during the Second World War.

During the UXO removal, the largest campaign in the two companies’ histories, an unexploded five-tonne ‘Tallboy’ bomb, or ‘earthquake bomb’, was discovered and defused by the Polish Navy.

Tallboy bombs were developed by British aeronautical engineer Barnes Wallis and used by the Royal Air Force as a more effective weapon against large structures than a conventional bomb.