Boskalis to begin new coastal protection project in Benin

Marine services company Boskalis has announced it is returning to Benin, West Africa, for a new coastal protection project involving sand nourishment, some two years after its last project in the country.

The company will deploy a trailing suction hopper dredger to deposit more than 3.5 million cubic metres of sand around a previously installed five-kilometre-long underwater breakwater running parallel to the Benin coastline.

According to Boskalis, the Benin coast is vulnerable due to a lack of natural defenses, which makes the existing breakwater insufficient to protect the coastline from beach erosion. The company said that depositing the sand will transform the steep underwater "dike" into a wider sand platform. This is designed to calm waves, allowing them to reach the beach of Avlékété more "gently".

This new project follows work conducted by the company in 2022, which involved constructing a 6.4 million cubic metre sand motor to protect another stretch of the country's coastline.