Keel laying ceremony for Van Oord’s new water injection dredger

A successful keel laying ceremony for the first of two water injection dredgers (WIJs) for the Kooiman Marine Group took place last week at Vahali Zasavica.

In July 2022, Van Oord ordered the construction of two additional state-of-the-art water injection vessels from Kooiman Marine Group after the successful operation of sister vessels Maas and Mersey in 2021.

The new vessels will have the same specifications, supplemented by innovative optimisations.

The first of the two vessels will be commissioned in the first half of 2024.

Energy management in this series of vessels was given special attention during the design phase.

The water injection vessels will be equipped with a hybrid energy management system and will be able to store energy in batteries that can be used later for propulsion and other purposes.

Diesel-electric engines will reduce carbon emissions.

The new water injection vessels will comply with IMO TIER III legislation for reducing harmful NOx emissions and take account of EU STAGE V legislation.