Some of the world’s largest dredgers will arrive in Egypt over the next few weeks where they will join the crews that are already working on the expansion of the Suez Canal, reported the Middle East News Agency (Mena).
According to Engineer Wagdy Zaki, executive manager of the project’s dredging works, Dutch dredging company Van Oord is about to send its trailing suction hopper dredger “Utrecht” to the canal. The “Utrecht”, with a capacity of 16,000 cubic meters, is expected to arrive in Egypt on May 27th 2015.
One more trailing suction hopper dredger, the “Oranje” is expected at the site on June 12. The vessel, with a capacity of 16,000 cubic meters, belongs to Dutch dredging contractor Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V.
With these two additions, a total of 42 vessels will be working on the New Suez Canal project in order to complete all dredging activities before the end of June, after which the experimental operation of the new canal will start.
Official inauguration of the new waterway has been set for August 2015.