Posted on May 1, 2024
Port of Esbjerg in Denmark, a leading hub for the offshore wind industry, has secured approval for a dredging project that will deepen the Grådyb fairway, a 22-km long fairway stretching from the North Sea to the port
The Kystdirektoratet, the Danish Coastal Authority, has given Port Esbjerg the go-ahead to deepen the fairway.
Port of Esbjerg chief executive Dennis Jul Pedersen said, “This will be a game-changer for our port and position us as a critical hub for wind turbines.”
More than 3,700,000 m3 of material will be dredged, with much of the material used to expand the port to the south.
“We believe this is a sensible solution both from a financial and an environmental point of view,” said Mr Jul Pedersen.
Port Esbjerg expects the work to begin this autumn and to be completed in spring 2025.
“We are pleased we’ve finally been given the go-ahead so that we can get started,” said Mr Jul Pedersen.
In 2022, Port Esbjerg received a grant of Dkr211M (US$20M) to deepen the fairway from 9.3 m to 12.8 m. The grant came from the EU infrastructure fund, Connecting Europe Facility. The grant also resulted in Port Esbjerg’s designation as a Ten-T port as part of the Trans-European Network, but work has been delayed due to environmental surveys that were required.
Port Esbjerg has prepared an environmental impact report for the project, which was submitted for consultation.
