Boskalis trailing suction hopper dredgers have been working for several months on a beach and foreshore replenishment project on Ameland, one of the Wadden islands in the Netherlands.
The project was commissioned by Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management.
Boskalis said the project involved reinforcing the beach on the western side of the island with approximately 2.5 million cubic metres of sand, while work is also taking place on the foreshore on the eastern side. The sand for the project was extracted from the North Sea and transported to the beach.
The dredger Freeway was the first vessel to begin work this spring, tasked with dredging an access channel around the island.
Boskalis stated that this was a “necessary” first step to create sufficient depth for the fully loaded dredgers to access the project site.
The Freeway and its sister vessel, the Causeway, then transported the sand through the newly created channel to the west side of the island, where it was pumped ashore via a pipeline system. A third vessel, the Strandway, also joined the project to assist with the dredging work.