Van Oord’s giant Vox Amalia arrives in Harwich

The €140 million Harwich Haven Channel Deepening Project is about to enter its next phase with the arrival of trailing hopper suction dredger Vox Amalia.

According to the Harwich Haven Authority (HHA), the hopper dredger Vox Amalia will arrive in Harwich later today to commence capital dredging of the main channel.

“Over the next 35 days, TSHD Vox Amalia will be working in various sections of the deep water channel, seaward of no. 7 & 8 Buoys, using the Inner Gabbard East disposal area,” said HHA.

They also added that trailing hopper suction dredge Medway will be busy from late November through mid-December doing maintenance dredging within the haven.

On the other hand, trailing hopper suction dredge Scald is dredging a section of the channel known as area C2 which covers the whole width of the main channel, running approx. 250m east of the Platters / Pitching Ground buoys to about 1,000m west of the same buoys.

Overall, the Harwich Haven Channel Deepening Project includes removal of approx. 15 million cubic meters of silt, sand and clay that will be dredged by trailing suction hopper dredgers and a large backhoe dredger.

This entails deepening of the approach channel and inner harbor from minus 14.5 to minus 16 meters to allow unimpeded access of the latest generation container vessels to Harwich Haven and the Port of Felixstowe.

As reported by the consortium of Boskalis and Van Oord, this massive dredging project will be completed within the next two years.