Workers of the Spanish shipbuilder LaNaval in Bilbao, Spain, held recently a keel-laying ceremony for the first of two trailing suction hopper dredgers under construction for Van Oord.
Ms Carmen de la Barrera, Van Oord’s Quality Control inspector at the LaNaval yard, performed the ceremony.
Underneath the first section, two euro coins were fixed: one with the portrait of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and one with the portrait of King Felipe VI of Spain.
Both the Vox Amalia and its sister ship the Vox Alexia will be operational in 2017. The ships will have a hopper capacity of approximately 18,000 m³.
With the length of 158 meters and a width of 36 meters, the vessels will be equipped with two suction pipes and submerged e-driven dredge pumps, two shore discharge dredge pumps, six bottom doors and a total installed power of 23,680 kW.
They will have accommodation for 38 persons.