Rosmorport begins VKMSK dredging program

FSUE Rosmorport’s dredging fleet started maintenance dredging operations on the Volga-Caspian Sea Shipping Canal (VKMSK) earlier this week.

The volume of dredging works at VKMSK planned for 2021 is 3.94 million cubic meters of material.

According to Rosmorport, the main goal of these dredging works is ensuring navigational safety for vessels with a draft of up to 4.2 meters.

To carry out dredging program along the entire length of the VKMSK, the following vessels of the company’s dredging fleet will be involved:

• two non-self-propelled dredgers;

• multi-bucket dredger with dredging scows;

• an auxiliary technical fleet.

The VKMSK Canal is a broad ship waterway that connects the Volga and the Don at their closest points. Opened in 1952, its length is 101 km – 45 km of which is through rivers and reservoirs.

The canal forms a part of the Unified Deep Water System of European Russia.

Together with the lower Volga and the lower Don, the canal provides the shortest navigable connection between the Caspian Sea and the world’s oceans, if the Mediterranean is counted, via the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.