Overall, 100,000 cubic meters of silt was dredged from the Veddel channel. This was achieved deploying the HH47, a small, autonomously sailing dredging pontoon with a hydraulic excavator installed. The dredged silt was transported in barges to the other side of the Hamburg seaport. From there, the client transported it to an officially designated sludge storage area. Jan Neuendorff served as project manager in this undertaking, running his first independent operation.
Chris Meijer, operations manager at Boskalis Hirdes, says that the beauty of this relatively small project is that it embedded so many aspects of operations. Starting with a survey of the channel bed, the team set out to deliver a very specific channel profile in twenty weeks. The task at hand: removing four meters of silt over a length of 700 meters.
“We did this, of course, by dredging. Then the dredged sediment was transported with two tugs and four barges. And all of this had to be well coordinated logistically,” Meijer says, adding that mastering this type of a complex puzzle from start to finish is what makes the work “so much fun”.
According to Meijer, the biggest challenges with the project surfaced in the planning phase. The planning team had to take into consideration that there was four meters of tide difference in the canal, which a number of bridges cross, too.
“At low tide, there was too little water for navigating the towed barges under the bridges, but at high tide there was too much water due to the restricted height,” compares Meijer.
And then there was the extra challenge of getting the barges to the right location – at the right time – via the busy river Elbe.
Execution period: March – July 2022
Customer: Hamburg Port Authority AöR
The first-time project manager Jan and the rest of the team overcame all challenges
Chris Meijer
