Dutch jumbos go super-size
Dutch dredging giants Van Oord and Royal Boskalis Westminster have responded to unprecedented levels of land reclamation works in the Middle East by expanding the capacities of already large trailing suction hopper dredgers.
Against a backdrop in which Belgian rival Jan De Nul has just launched the 46,000 cu/m capacity super-jumbo trailer
Cristobal Colon
in Spain (see MJ last month)
and
the same yard has started work on the twin vessel
Leiv Eiriksson
, Van Oord
and
Boskalis have taken the more immediate route to additional capacity by lengthening the
HAM 318
and
Queen of the Netherl
and
s
respectively.
Increasing the capacities of these vessels by more than 50% has a significant effect on the revenue potential of each
and
every sailing cycle between the s
and
winning area
and
the reclamation site.
Van Oord’s HAM 318 hasjust returned to service after a midship section measuring 52m long
and
incorporating some 4,500 tons of steel was added to the vessel at the COSCO shipyard in China. This enlargement takes HAM 318 to 228m LOA (5m longer than Cristobal Colon)
and
increases its hopper capacity from 23,783 cu/m to 37,293 cu/m, making it largest operational trailing suction hopper dredger in the world.
When works were completed HAM 318 sailed for Dubai, where it is working on the Palm Deira l
and
reclamation project, the third
and
the largest such project to be undertaken there.
Meanwhile, Boskalis has booked its 23,473 cu/m capacity Queen of the Netherl
and
s into the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore for extension works. The same yard has already undertaken such works on Queen of the Netherl
and
‘s sister ship WD Fairway. When works are completed in the first quarter of 2009, Queen of the Netherl
and
s will return to work with a massively enhanced hopper capacity of 35,500 cu/m.
