With the start of our Winter 2020 dredging season, we kicked off early in November from our home port of Poole, headed for Southampton, River Hamble and then ventured west up to Chichester Harbour and are imminently on our way to the Isle of Wight to continue on for the next few months.
With our capable fleet for marina dredging operations, we have been actively working with the 30m x 9m backhoe dredger ‘Doreen Dorward’ and our onboard 50t long reach excavator for continuous dredging works to support marinas on the South Coast. Along with our main backhoe dredging vessel we complement the dredging operations with both of our 300m³ capacity Self Propelled Split Hopper Barges; ‘Nab’ and ‘Needles’, or with our 150m³ capacity split barge, ‘Hurst’, if the larger vessels are not able to access the required marinas due to space limitations. So far this season we have dredged over 25,000m³ of material from our various project locations and are on course to increase this further as we progress into 2021!
Working at Cobbs Quay Marina in Poole consideration had to be made for opening times of the two lifting bridges to ensure the loading operation worked well with the departure and return of hopper barges to and from the sea disposal site. One of the most important requirements for dredging operations is to always keep the dredging vessel working productively to ensure our clients get the best value for the operation.
The challenges are always to consider the location and accessibility of our vessels within the marinas and the travel time to get to the disposal grounds. Planning is always the key to ensure all of the variables are considered for the dredging area to achieve our target depths and design specifications. Accuracy of our dredging works is ensured with the use of our prolec 3D RTK GPS dig control system, giving our client’s peace of mind, with a record of the dredging between monitoring surveys and the option for progress charts.
Going forward onto the Isle of Wight we are finalising preparations for the arrival of the team into Cowes and to get things underway for the start of the next phase with the anticipation of continuing onto further operations. Many of the dredge sites will have tidal working operations and require our team to operate 24/7 when the tides and weather conditions are favourable to get an efficient return for the project.
Our Clients include; Marina operators, Port and Harbour Authorities, Shipyard operators, Sail Training Charities, Residential marina operators, Yacht clubs and Local authorities. We shall feedback more progress over the next month…