Page 50: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2015)

The 2015 The 2015

YearbookYearbook

More than Mega

Diversity De? nes the

Dredging Industry

By René Kolman

Secretary General of the International Association of Dredging Companies he mantra of recent times Today’s major dredging contractors do wind energy as well as civil engineering huge. In contrast, a recently constructed has been the worldwide more than dredge. They are partners in projects. Diversi? cation has helped the mega-TSHD has a 46,000 m³ hopper trend to ‘mega’. Mega con- the development of a project. More and international dredging contractors sat- capacity. Cutter suction dredgers (CSD) tainer ships created the more often they work as EPC (engineer- isfy a wide range of market demands. and backhoes show the same growth

T need for mega ports which ing, procurement, construction) contrac- spurt. The biggest CSDs can reach to required mega dredging projects. These tors, where the contractor designs the more than 35 meters underwater and me-

Enormous equipment in turn demand mega dredging vessels. installation, procures the materials and No denying that mega projects demand ga-backhoes are 60 to 70 meters in length

All this is true but disregards another builds the project. Besides land rec- with buckets up to 40 cubic meters. mega vessels. And indeed the major in- development: the consolidation of the lamations for port expansions, airport ternational dredging contractors have

Both the Panama and Suez Canal ex- major dredging contractors into larger platforms and arti? cial islands, their ac- invested in larger equipment. In 1994 a pansions indicate that this trend will con- companies with long-term strategies tivities include salvage, pipe laying and trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) tinue – which means that ports, especial- that have resulted in diversi? cation. ly on the U.S. East Coast, are scrambling stone dumping for offshore gas, oil and with a hopper capacity of 17,000 m3 was 50 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • JUNE 2015

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