Cape Town – The Transet National Ports Authority’s (TNPA) Dredging Services division has embarked on another maintenance dredging campaign at the Port of Cape Town to ensure the region provided safe navigational channels and berthing facilities for shipping.
Around 20 000m³ of sand and sediment is expected to be removed during the dredging exercise, which started on October 28. It will restore the design depths leading from the basin to the berths as well as the berth areas alongside South East Quay in the basin.
Dredging will also address localised high spots along the long quay in Duncan Dock.
Dredging is specialised underwater excavation that helps to keep ports and harbours safe and navigable, and is a critical aspect of port maintenance.
Dredged material is pumped into the hopper and can be offloaded by discharging through conical bottom valves.
The 4 500m³ Italeni grab hopper dredger and the Isandlwana trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) have been deployed for the exercise.
“The two dredgers complement each other in that the TSHD is built for high speed sailing to the offshore disposal site, while the Italeni improves the accuracy of the final dredged depths.
‘‘Multi-beam bathymetric surveys will be conducted at regular intervals throughout the campaign to ensure that all areas within Duncan Dock are restored to their original design depths,” Transnet said.
The dredge material within Duncan Dock will be disposed of at the offshore disposal site which has been approved by the Department of Environmental Affairs.
“TNPA’s fleet renewal programme has boosted the dredging division’s capacity to aid the removal of approximately 4 million cubic meters of excess material from the seabed every year at South Africa’s ports.
“With the most modern equipment available in the specialised service industry, dredging services is able to not only meet the needs of the South African port system, but the needs of Southern Africa,” Transnet said.