business

Dredger to begin work on Canal

The dredger is expected to remove 1.5 million cubic meters of material.

The company’s contract calls for the removal of 1.9 million cubic meters.

david mesa/la prensa

ready to go: A dredger is ready to begin work on expanding the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal.1116203

Dredging International of Panama, SA, which was awarded a $177 million contract for the widening and deepening of the entrance to the Pacific side of the Canal, has completed the installation of a dredger expected to carry out a large part of the work.

The dredger “Vlaanderen XIX” is one of four such vessels that the company plans to use to do the work, which calls for the removal of 9.1 million cubic meters of material from the Pacific entrance.

The contract calls for the widening of the entrance to 225 meters, and a depth of 15.5 meters below the average level of low tide in the channel. It also calls for the dredging of an access channel to the entrance of the new locks that will accommodate larger, “postpanamax” ships.

Dredging International recently conducted the final tests that will allow it to begin the first stage of dredging, which calls for the removal of 1.5 million cubic meters of material. That material will be deposited at a site located in Farfan, next to the road to Veracruz.

Vlaanderen XIX is a self-propelled, seagoing cutter suction dredger. It was built in Holland and is registered in Belgium.

It is owned by Tideway Offshore Contractors, which was founded in 1991. Among its other jobs, the ship was used to dredge material that allowed for the construction of an undersea tunnel in Ireland.