The Xin Hai Jing 1, China’s first extra-large self-propelled trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) designed with distributed in-hold dredge pumps, built by Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery (ZPMC) for CCCC Shanghai Dredging, was officially delivered at ZPMC Qidong Offshore Engineering base yesterday.
Designed by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation’s 708 Research Institute, the TSHD Xin Hai Jing can dredge to depths of up to 120 meters and has a hopper capacity of approximately 27,580 cubic meters. Also, the new TSHD has an overall length of 180 meters, a beam of 36 meters, and a draft of 17.2 meters.
Breaking away from the traditional centralized layout of mud pumps on cutter-suction dredgers, it is the first vessel to install two in-hold mud pumps in separate forward and aft pump compartments at the front and rear of the mud hold, respectively.
Once put into service, the vessel will be widely deployed for major projects such as deep-sea sand dredging, deep-water port and channel dredging, land reclamation and coastal protection works.