Posted on November 25, 2024
Dredging has begun at the port of Batabanó to restore maritime transport following Hurricane Rafael. A total of 2,000 cubic meters of sediment will be removed over the course of five days, with further stages planned until 2025 to enhance operational efficiency.
Dredging work in the access channel to the port of Batabanó, in the province of Mayabeque, has begun with the aim of restoring normal maritime passenger transportation between the Isle of Youth and the rest of Cuba, which was disrupted after Hurricane Rafael passed through the western part of the island.
Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, Cuba’s Minister of Transport, announced on his Facebook profile that these efforts aim to ensure the safe docking of the ferry Perseverancia, a crucial component in maintaining the connection between the two locations.
The head of the department shared an amateur video that shows the start of operations at the entrance, while emphasizing the importance of this dredging to ensure the port’s operability and facilitate the movement of passengers and essential goods.
In a previous post, Rodríguez explained that a dredger, previously assigned to the port of La Coloma in Pinar del Río, was urgently relocated to Batabanó to dredge two critical points in the access channel to the dock and facilitate the entry of the ferry Perseverancia, responsible for transporting passengers between the Isle of Youth and Cuban territory.
This initial work, which requires the extraction of about 2,000 cubic meters of sediment within a five-day period, represents the first stage of the project.
The plan includes a second phase that will extend until January 2025, during which an additional 22,000 cubic meters will be dredged to enhance the docking area and maneuvering basin.
The third phase, scheduled for 2025, aims to reach the levels approved in the original project, thereby restoring the port’s full capacity. At the same time, efforts will be made to transform the port of La Coloma into an alternative for passenger transport to the Isle of Youth.
Rodríguez explained that the dredger will extract sediments from the seabed, transporting them through a pipeline to a designated dumping site.
This procedure is essential to address the accumulation of sediments caused by Hurricane Rafael and the natural conditions of this coastal area, which have significantly reduced the depth of the canal.
Recently, the head of the department explained on his Facebook profile that Cuban authorities had intensified dredging work in the Batabanó harbor to restore passenger transportation to Isla de la Juventud, a vital route for the residents of the island region.
The minister detailed that the accumulation of sediment in the access channel, exacerbated by the passage of Hurricane Rafael and the natural displacement of materials in the area, has significantly hindered the docking of the vessel Perseverancia, currently the only one operational for covering the trips between Batabanó and Nueva Gerona.
To carry out this work, it was necessary for a team of divers and specialists from the Marine Studies Company of GEOCUBA to take measurements in the access channel of the port of Batabanó.
These efforts aimed to assess the current depth and plan the necessary dredging following the sediment accumulation caused by Hurricane Rafael. The collected data allowed for the design of a project that prioritizes the most affected areas.
