A dredger was tracked arriving to the Port of Waterford today, following works carried out in UK south coast ferry ports on the English Channel, however this week work is to start along the Waterford Harbour estuary, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The trailing suction hopper dredger Freeway according to the Port of Waterford, is to conduct a maintenance dredging campaign in the vicinity of Belview, Cheekpoint and Duncannon Bar and with the spoil to be disposed at an approved site offshore of Hook Head, Co. Wexford. The scheduled dredging as Afloat reported last week, has been contracted to Cork based Irish Dredging, a subsidiary of Boskalis.

Freeway’s forthcoming dredging work, follows campaigns along the English south coast, where in Portsmouth, Hampshire, the Royal Navy’s main base, along with ferry terminal operations to France, Channel Islands and Spain, is where two vessels along with Freeway carried out surveying and maintenance dredging works within the port’s harbour and channel approaches.

On that occasion, the dredging for Portsmouth Port was contracted to Royal Boskalis Westminster Group which had disposed of the spoil to a designated site offshore to the east of the Isle of Wight.

Following this campaign, the Cypriot flagged Freeway, was also tracked by Afloat last week, as the 2015 built dredger headed to Newhaven in East Sussex, where the yellow hulled, Transmanche Ferries, operated by DFDS, at the start of this year, won a five-year contract to continue running the 'public service' obligation route to Dieppe. The historic ‘London-Paris capitals service’ can be traced to the joint UK-France railway operated route, dating to 1862, which geographically is the most direct between the capitals, which is currently served by Côte d'Albâtre.

Transmanche's twin ferry, Seven Sisters, Afloat tracked down to the Normandy port’s Bassin de Paris where it is in layover period so far for the winter, while DFDS also operate out of other northern French ports, Calais and Dunkirk, both linking Dover. In addition, the Danish operator with an extensive European route network, among them the Dunkirk-Rosslare Europort connection.

The dredging works according to the Newhaven Port Authority were scheduled to take around five days and were completed at the English Channel port (closest to London), on the River Ouse, which involved disposal of spoil to a site south off the port’s breakwater from where Freeway passed when departing on Sunday evening bound for Waterford.

By yesterday evening, the 92m Freeway was offshore of Lizard Point, Cornwall before entering Waterford Harbour today at lunch hour to berth at Belview, downriver of the city.

For further details of the Port’s maintenance dredging campaign, click here.

The Port of Waterford is to have a maintenance dredging campaign start in the week beginning 13 November, with the work to be carried out at three locations along Waterford estuary, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The Cypriot flagged dredger Freeway, will conduct dredging activities in the vicinity of Belview which is the port’s main terminal and at nearby Cheekpoint and further downriver on the Waterford Estuary at Duncannon Bar, close to the Passage-East ferry service.

Disposal of the dredged spoil by the 4,500m³ capacity trailing suction hopper dredger will according to the port take place at an approved site south west of Hook Head, out in the open sea.

Following the completion of dredging, a bed levelling campaign will be carried out by the multi-cat vessel Fastnet Sound which is operated by Fastnet Shipping based in Bilberry, Waterford City.

The vessels will maintain a continuous VHF watch on Channels 14 & 16, and will display regulation shapes and lights as per I.R.P.C.S. All vessels approaching the area of operations should communicate with the vessels on Channel 14 and proceed with caution.

It is expected that the dredging maintenance campaign is to take approximately 25 days to complete and that mariners are reminded of their responsibilities under the International Collision Regulations.

The dredging work has been contracted to Irish Dredging based in Cork which is a subsidiary of Boskalis, a leading global dredging and offshore contractor and maritime services provider.

For more than 50 years Irish Dredging has carried out such work and marine projects and have access to technological support and dredgers for the most part, based in Ireland or the UK, potentially minimising response times and mobilisation costs.

Currently, Afloat has tracked the Freeway which is working off the UK south coast with operations at Portsmouth. 

In addition, Irish Dredging has the use of the Royal Boskalis Westminster fleet of vessels, giving the capability to undertake a wide range of projects.