PHOTO: Backhoe Optimus in Klintehamn Harbor

Wasa Dredging, a Finnish marine offshore and inland water construction company, has just released this amazing photo of their backhoe dredger ‘Optimus’, working on the Klintehamn Harbor dredging project in Sweden.

“We are dredging about 250.000 m³ of material from the harbor and fairway of Klintehamn Harbor on Gotland and about 120.000 m³ of this material is limestone which could be very hard to dredge. The rest of the masses are clay/sand/silt and is very soft,” said Mr. Daniel Backlund of Wasa Dredging.

“Wasa is expecting to be able to take out all of the hard masses without the blasting. For the job we have deployed ‘Optimus’ along with barges ‘Miika II’ and ‘Dana II’.”

The Finnish dredging contractor is going to take out as much as possible of these hard masses with the 12 m³ hard material bucket, and the rest will be loosened with an “Excentric Ripper” hydraulic hammer.

This major cleanup and construction project is co-driven by Swedish maritime administration (Sjöfartsverket) and Klintehamn harbor.