Developing new seaport in Nador, Morocco, by Jan De Nul

Morocco remains strategically committed to the development of its regions. Jan De Nul is also participating in the ongoing development of the north-east region by realising an integrated industrial port platform on the Mediterranean coast called Nador West-Med (NWM).

The NWM project will be built in a tactical location, namely along Betoya Bay.

Located on the western side of the ‘Cap des Trois Fourches’ peninsula, about 30 km as the crow flies from Nador city centre, it is close to the main East-West shipping routes for containerisation and transport of oil and gas products throughout the Mediterranean region.

NWM awarded the contract for the design and construction of the first port module to the Consortium of STFA (Turkey) – SGTM (Morocco) and Jan De Nul.

This first module includes:

• a main embankment/breakwater over a length of approx. 4,300 m (consisting of 148 caissons over approx. 3,000 m and 1,300 m of rock embankment with concrete acropods) and a secondary breakwater/dike of about 1,200 m (also rock & acropods);
• two container terminals (concrete deck on piles) with quay lengths of 1,520 m (TC1) and 600 m (TC2); expandability by an additional 600 m), at a depth of -18 m and an adjacent container yard/platform over an area of 76 ha;
• a petroleum terminal with three tanker-berths at a depth of -20 m;
• a bulk terminal with a 360 m quay and a depth of -20 m ;
• a diverse terminal (-11  m depth) with a ro-ro berth and a service quay.

Jan De Nul is responsible for carrying out the dredging works.

Since 2016, they have already dredged 25 million m³, accounting for 88% of the total dredging scope. JDN also took care of the soil-substitution scope for the JV partners.

The execution of the dredging works is phased and completely intertwined with the civil construction activities executed by the JV partners.

The hopper Francesco di Giorgio took on trench dredging for the secondary breakwater in 2019, while the hopper Pinta entered the hopper stage in 2020 and 2021 to dredge the Eastern Cavalier and a first section of the trench for the Eastern Container Terminal to depth, together amounting to approx. 2 million m³.

The remaining part of the dredging volume in the central port basin and the trenches for the Container Terminals is a precision job for a cutter suction dredger.

The various dredging operations are planned in coordination with the JV partners.

Over the past summer months, the CSD Ibn Battuta has been working at full speed. In July, the portion of reusable sand was first reclaimed through a floating and land pipeline.

The cutter then loaded the split barges L’Aigle, L’Etoile, Boussole and Le Guerrier in order to start dumping the non-reusable soil material offshore again.

Next year, the JDN crews only have to carry out the final round of finishing and clearing. The final completion date of this port contract is scheduled for the end of June 2024.