Posted on December 17, 2018
Van Oord has a strong and modern dredging fleet of various trailing suction hopper dredgers. The new generation vessels currently being built will further modernise our fleet and improve our competitive position on different markets.
Trailing suction hopper dredgers are deployed for several dredging projects, such as:
– Constructing and maintaining ports and waterways
– Land reclamation
– Constructing artificial islands
– Coastal defences
Two princesses will be joining our fleet
Two trailing suction hopper dredgers, both with a hopper volume of approx. 18,000 cubic metres, are currently being built in Spain. The vessels have been named Vox Amalia and Vox Alexia, after two of the daughters of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.
How does it work?
A trailing suction hopper dredger has large, powerful pumps and engines that enable it to dredge sand, clay, sludge and even gravel from sea or river beds. The vessel stores the dredged material in its own hopper and discharges the leftover water overboard. The hopper can be emptied in a variety of ways, including by:
– depositing the material through doors or valves on the bottom of the vessel.
– using pumps and jets to make the material fluid again and pump it ashore through a pipeline.
– rainbowing, where the hopper contents are pumped directly from the vessel to the desired site.
Source: Van Oord
