9 minute read
Sewer spoil
London marine freight specialist Walsh has begun removing more than one million tonnes of tunnel spoil arising from the eastern leg of the capital’s super sewer scheme
The material coming from Tideway’s Eastern section, from Bermondsey to Stratford, is being transported down river to a wildlife habitat creation scheme being delivered by wet civil engineering company Land & Water.
Walsh, in partnership with Land & Water, is carrying out the major muck-shift and restoration scheme - believed to be the biggest project of its kind on the Thames - for Eastern section joint venture delivery partners Costain, Vinci Construction Grands Projets and Bachy Soletanche (CVB).
Over the next 14-months, chalk and clay from Tideway sites at Chambers Wharf, Greenwich Pumping Station and King Edward Memorial Park Foreshore in Shadwell are being loaded onto Walsh river barges for transport to the restoration project at Rainham Marshes.
Joe Gifford, Walsh Managing Director, said: “We’re extremely proud to be playing such an important role in the delivery of the Thames Tideway Tunnel. The Walsh marine business is uniquely positioned to move materials to and from major infrastructure schemes that support development and regeneration in London. The fact that we have such a huge capability to move freight by river means that we can add real value to major projects like Tideway, especially when spoil can be put to good use in land restoration elsewhere along the river.”
To ensure successful delivery of the project, Walsh made major investments in its marine fleet worth almost £6 million, including the state-of-the-art Damen CS2010 pusher tug SWS Endeavour which went into service at the end of 2020 and the adaptable Damen Multi Cat 1908 SWS Endurance delivered in 2019.
Walsh has already shifted more than 600,000 tonnes of material from other parts of the 25km Tideway project. Another company of the GRS Group, RFS (a joint venture with construction materials producer Aggregate Industries), is carrying out all the spoil handling from Tideway sites onto Walsh barges.
8 Walsh has already
shifted more than 600,000 tonnes of material
Dock gate hydraulics
Hydraulic engineering specialist Industrial and Marine Hydraulics (IMH) has been commissioned to provide the hydraulics for a pair of new dock gates at the Port of Boston dock entrance in the UK.
The company, based in Middlesbrough, UK delivers major hydraulic engineering projects across the world and successfully won this project following its work on the Boston Barrier supporting BMMJV (a joint operating venture of BAM Nuttall and Mott MacDonald).
IMH has already supplied a main hydraulic power unit and two emergency hydraulic power units to power the Boston tidal flood barrier which weighs around 730 tonnes when in operation.
This phase of the project will see IMH
8 IMH will deliver a single main hydraulic
power unit
deliver a single main hydraulic power unit (MHPU) which will power both the North and South wet dock entrance gates, as well as two emergency hydraulic power units (EHPU) which are diesel driven.
Interconnecting pipework and control cables will be routed under the wet dock entrance structures with each wet dock entrance gate actuated by a single hydraulic cylinder. The new wet dock entrance gates will be operated by the hydraulic control system.
PORT OF BRAKE BUILDS ON BULK STRENGTHS
Work on the renovation of berth facilities in Brake is getting under way to meet growth in the north German Weser port, reports Tom Todd
Spokeswoman Dörte Schmitz told Maritime Journal the berth work was part of an investment of about €8.5 million this year by Brake’s owners, Niedersachsen Ports (NPorts).
NPorts said in March it was also ploughing a further €4.9 million into maintenance in Brake, which is just upstream from Germany’s second biggest universal seaport complex Bremen/Bremerhaven.
Brake is a major handler of agricultural products, feedstuffs and grain. Prior to Covid they already accounted for 3.8 million of a total annual handling of 6.6 million tons. In an effort to build on that bulk handling strength, most of this year’s investment cash is going into renovation at Brake’s Südpier, a major bulk handling centre.
A second big ship berth was completed there in late 2017 and officials said it had proved to be “very significant” and had contributed to the success of the port” over the two following ‘drought’ years. Two ships each of 270m and drawing 11.9m can now be handled simultaneously at the berth,increasing ship and cargo volume.
Dörte Schmitz told Maritime Journal the renovation of the ship berth adjoining the one in use was getting underway by June. That berth was actually built earlier but damaged in 2017 in an accident involving the 28,180dwt bulker Mount Hope. Officials said the accident destroyed some 80m of the old pier and also damaged an inland ship moored alongside as well as the bulker.
Pile-driving was being followed by the replacement of 13 bollards and fender installations enabling ships to use both berths more flexibly. The project is due for completion by the end of 2022 or early 2023 with the repair of the Mount Hope damage for completion by year’s end or early next year. German construction firm Hecker Bau is in charge. The Südpier renovation is not the only project currently underway to up capacity in Brake. Dredging is also taking place at the port’s Nordpier and Niedersachsenkai to maintain water depths for ships drawing up to 11.9m. The Inner Harbour, accessed via the Vorhafen lock, is also being dredged to ensure berthing for vessels drawing up to 5m.
8 Weser port Brake is ploughing cash into renovation to improve big ship handling capacity
Aberdeen awards major contracts
Construction contracts worth GB£60m have been awarded for Aberdeen Harbour’s expansion project.
Aberdeen Harbour Board has awarded two new contracts for the construction of the South Breakwater and Crown Wall at Aberdeen Harbour port. Van Oord will act as the principal contractor for the 550m long South Breakwater, and Scottish-based construction firm Beattie FRC will build the concrete Crown Wall along the length of the North Breakwater.
Both structures will provide critical protection for vessels and operations within the Harbour expansion, ultimately protecting the port from a one-in-300-year storm. Work on site will start imminently.
Speaking about the harbour expansion
Photo: Aberdeen Harbour
project, Keith Young, AHEP Project Director at Aberdeen Harbour Board, said: “The construction of the South Breakwater and Crown Wall form a significant part of the final 30% of construction, and I look forward to seeing the structures take shape in the coming months.”
8 Aberdeen Harbour port has awarded
contracts for the construction of its South Breakwater and Crown Wall
Paul Hesk, area manager for Van Oord, said: “Our experienced site team will deploy specialist equipment and methodologies to ensure the new breakwater is constructed safely, whilst at the same time minimising the impact of our work on the marine environment and rich wildlife of the surrounding area.”
The 10m high Crown Wall - or wave wall - will be built using concrete produced at the batching plant on the north-west corner of the expansion site. The wall will ensure extremely high waves cannot obstruct operations on the East Quay (Dunnottar Quay).
REAL TIME PROCESSING MODULE
New Zealand Multibeam Echosounder specialist ENL Group has released the latest product in their WASSP S-Series range with the updated S3 and S3r kit with new Real-time Processing Module
The new S3 builds upon previous iterations of the S3 improving both hardware and software to give amazing performance for money within the mid-range survey market.
The new WASSP S3 is claimed to be one of the world’s most cost-effective, professional survey and mapping multibeam echosounder solutions able to survey up to 10 times faster than a single-beam echosounder. It combines data from a multibeam transducer simultaneously generating a 120 degrees swath with up to 100 pings per second. This functionality now incorporates advanced signal processing from the new RPM (Real-time Processing Module) along with position, heading, motion and sound velocity to create an accurate bathymetric map meeting hydrographic survey standards such as IHO S-44 order 1b, 1a and Special Order, capable of mapping objects within 2cm depth accuracy. These new improvements make the WASSP S3 one of the worlds most cost-effective Multibeam Echosounders on the market.
The S3 includes an improved IP66 waterproof DRX processor, along with the new RPM processing module and a high performance fairing transducer perfect for pole or hull mounting.
WASSP’s own user friendly CDX remains the primary UI and interfaces with an even greater range of 3rd party software options such as BeamworX, HYPACK, EIVA, Qinsy, SonarWiz, Echoview and many more. In addition to the standard package, a range of optional licenses are available such as Backscatter, Sidescan and Water Column Targets.
“We have been using WASSP multibeam for artificial reef projects that encourage marine growth & fish life, and using WASSP allowed us to save time and money as we could use it ourselves without needing outside surveyors. The results exceeded our performance requirements and was the perfect choice for our needs”, said Nicholas Kavadis, Managing Director, Voyager Electronics
In addition to the improvements to the S3, a fully integrated kit known as the S3r has also been released. The S3r includes an RTK INS providing very accurate position, heading, pitch, roll and heave as well as Sound velocity sensor (SVS) that can effortlessly allow survey mapping for a range of applications with IHO S-44 standards accuracy achievable.
8 The S3 includes
an improved IP66 waterproof DRX processor, along with the new RPM processing module and a high performance fairing transducer
Magnetometer low altitude effi ciency
Testing has confi rmed the Geometrics MagArrow magnetometer to be effi cient at low altitude fl ights.
SPH Engineering, developer of UgCS ground control software and solutions for industrial applications, as part of its strategy to expand its range of supported sensors, completed tests of the Geometrics MagArrow magnetometer together with a radar altimeter and True Terrain Following technology for surveys requiring extremely low altitude (1-2 meters between a sensor and surface).
Alexey Dobrovolskiy, CTO of SPH Engineering, said: “As of today, MagArrow has been typically used for surveys conducted at high altitude, like minerals prospecting or abandoned wells detection. We can confirm with confidence to UgCS and Geometrics clients that True Terrain Following and MagArrow are fully
Photo: SPH Engineering
compatible allowing using the magnetometer in additional scenarios requiring low altitude to gather high resolution data.”
Tests were conducted in Latvia to find underground infrastructure, and find magnetic anomalies under the bottom of the lake. Infrastructure detection tests were conducted at SPH Engineering’s own test ranges over known targets - different
8 Geometrics MagArrow magnetometer tests
show it can be used at low altitude
metallic pipes, barrels, and smaller metallic items.
During the tests over lake magnetic anomalies were detected at half a meter under lake bottom, water depth 1-3m. The existence of anomalies was confirmed using a low-frequency GPR system.
In terms of R&D adjustments, UgCS Industrial Solutions determined the optimal position of a radar altimeter on a drone carrying a MagArrow, which is affixed to the UAV using suspension cables.
The True Terrain Following system was fine-tuned for this application, and this simplified the workflow to refine the coordinates in the magnetic data with the help of more precise position tracks from UgCS SkyHub onboard computer.
