Besiktas delivers workboats for Canadian bridge project

Founded in 1911, SNC-Lavalin is based in Canada and a major engineering and construction company operating globally. A project with SNC-Lavalin involvement is the new Champlain Bridge spanning the Saint Lawrence River at Montreal. The two new customised tugs from Besiktas are destined for operation at the bridge construction site.

The vessels concerned are two different designs, larger of the two the 15m Turbulent is powered by two Volvo Penta D16 main engines developing 1,500hp in total at 1,900rpm with a bollard pull of 17 tons. It is complemented by the slightly smaller 13m Intense which is equipped with Volvo Penta D13 main engines with a total output of 1,100hp at 1,900rpm and a bollard pull of 13 tons.

Both vessels are fitted with twin fixed-pitch propellers turning in nozzles, also below the waterline are Fernstrum high performance keel coolers where no increase in coolant temperatures were evident during 100% load tests, even in a seawater temperature of 25’ in Turkey.

Turbulent and Intense were customised by Besiktas involving a revision of the standard design to meet requirements of Transport Canada and Bureau Veritas regulations to whose standards they are built to.

Besiktas Shipyard is involved in both ship building and ship repair activities, the latter benefiting from a new 382m long floating dock. The ship building division produce a wide range of vessels including currently, a series of four tankers also for Canadian owners. Another vessel under construction of interest is a Rolls-Royce UT521 multi-functional offshore support vessel for Norwegian company Myklebusthaug. The workboat division specialises in: tugs, mooring boats, pilot boats and other similar small craft.

By Peter Barker