Dutch – Spanish dredger building flourishing

Each party is contributing its particular expertise. Murutea designs and builds the vessels whilst Damen Dredging Equipment designs and builds the dredging plant, all to the specific customer requirements.

The present projects involve three very different vessels. There is a 103m LOA, 2,600 m3 capacity hopper dredger under construction for the French owner DTM, which wins sand in the Bay of Biscay at depths to 46.5m. The 700 mm diameter trailing pipe will be fitted out with a submerged dredge pump, directly driven by a 600 kW electric motor. The hopper can discharge through bottom doors as well as by using its bow coupling unit.

The other two dredgers, of 1,500 m3 and 2,600 m3 capacities, are being built for Dragages Ports. This is the French government body which guarantees all dredging activities in the country’s major seaports. These two dredgers are destined to work at the Ports of Bordeaux and Rouen respectively. The dredgers have been designed for round the clock maintenance dredging and are fitted with 600 mm and 800 mm trailing pipes respectively. The vessels have been designed with identical conical bottom valves for dumping the dredged material. The 1,500 m3 hopper dredger will also be fitted out with a degassing system to boost its efficiency. The respective lengths of the vessels are 82.1 m and 89.1 m.

All building activities are on schedule. The construction of the 2,600 m3 sand mining hopper is underway at the Bilbao yard, while the 1,500 m3 capacity vessel is being built at the Murueta yard. They are due to be delivered in the autumn of this year. Building of the 2,600 m3 capacity maintenance hopper has just started at the Murueta yard and it will be delivered in May 2013.