Posted on February 9, 2026
With our trailing suction hopper dredgers Causeway, Freeway, Shoalway, and Strandway, Boskalis works along the Dutch coast almost year-round. Through beach and foreshore replenishment, we help protect the coastline from the effects of climate change – from Zeeland in the south to the Wadden Islands in the north. One vessel, however, often breaks this coastal routine: our Strandway. In recent years, the vessel has built up a warm relationship with the port city of Rotterdam.
The Strandway has, for example, carried out long-term maintenance dredging in the port’s navigational channels, while also working for the land reclamation project in the Rijnhaven. In recent weeks, the vessel has been active in the Maasmond, dredging silt in the navigational channels in the Rotterdam port area. Naturally, the Strandway also operated at other locations along the Dutch coast, such as Ameland or Vlissingen, and internationally in Emden (Germany) and Southsea, Portsmouth (United Kingdom). But Rotterdam is never far away, especially because the Strandway is also equipped with specialized equipment to respond rapidly to oil spills, helping to limit environmental damage in the port.
In short: you can take the Strandway out of Rotterdam, but you can never take Rotterdam out of the Strandway. In the years ahead, the four trailing suction hopper dredgers will remain a familiar sight on the North Sea. And the Strandway will – as expected – continue to reappear among the iconic skyline of Rotterdam.
