Van Oord christens two new WIDs and an unmanned survey vessel

The christening ceremonies of two new Van Oord’s hybrid water injection dredgers (WIDs), Rijn and Rhône, and an unmanned survey vessel VO:X Barentsz took place at the company’s head office jetty in Rotterdam yesterday. 

The new WIDs are sister vessels of the Maas and Mersey – successfully commissioned in 2021.

According to Van Oord, the new vessels are among the most sustainable water injection dredgers to date and will have the Ultra Low Emission Vessel (ULEV) notation of the classification society.

“The combination of hybrid energy management systems, heat recovery systems and exhaust gas aftertreatment devices reduce the vessels’ energy consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter (CO2e, NOx, PM),” said the Dutch giant.

Water injection dredging is an efficient and environmentally friendly way of maintaining the depth of navigation channels, ports, marinas and rivers. For over 30 years, Van Oord has been using this technique all around the world.

The christening ceremony also marked the farewell of Pieter van Oord, who led Van Oord as CEO for over 15 years and has been with the company for a total of 30 years.

The inaugural official act of their new CEO, Govert van Oord, also took place at the event.