Port of Lucky Bay dredging wraps up

The Port of Lucky Bay, South Australia, has a specific purpose: it has ample storage for locally grown grains. This grain is exported; its export vessels wait offshore.

A number of small feeder vessels ensure the connecting transport. They load their cargo in the 2-berth shallow water port, to discharge into the large export vessels.

These activities require excellent access to the port, which has been created relatively recently.

Yet the harbor access was more and more hindered by sand built up due to natural sediment disposal. To remove these sand banks, Polaris Marine Pty employed a DOP250 with cutter head.

The DOP was mounted onto a 336 CAT crane boom, and the unit was placed on a pontoon for easy maneuverability. The DOP dredge pump removed all shallow draft sand.

With the top layer of sediment gone, a trailing suction hopper dredgers had access to the port again for further maintenance dredging.

The DOP250-set up completed the job in lass than 4 months.