PD Ports welcomes new Duchess dredger

Emerald Duchess has cost the port company a cool £23 million (€27.3 million), and will provide essential dredging services up and down the 12 miles of the river Tees to the North Sea and at the Port of Hartlepool.

Dutch shipbuilder Neptune designed and built the 71 metres long vessel, which was ordered in Ju;ly 2023 and will replace Cleveland County, which has worked on the Tees for 50 years, according to the local newspaper Northern Echo.

Emerald Duchess has been fitted with a power management system that enables the vessel to switch between battery power and hydro-treated vegetable oil fuel.

She has been ‘future proofed’ for the incoming alternative fuels, with hatches installed above the engine room that allow power units to be switched for whatever suitable fuels will become available as technology develops.

The vessel can carry a 2,500t load and has capacity for 2,000m³ of dredged material.

Dredging around the port needs to be carried out on a regular basis to allows shipping traffic to continue safe passage, and the material is discharged into designated areas off the coast, PD Ports says, closely monitored by the Marine Management Organisation with a process that has been in place for half a century.

PD Ports was founded in 1840 in South Wales, and now owns and operates ports in 11 locations.