A large fleet of specially designed push boats and barges are currently being built for the Hidrovias do Brasil project in South America, an operation involving the transportation of iron ore from Vale's Corumba mine to tidewater near Buenos Aires, Argentina – a distance of some 2,500 kilometres.
The Hidrovias contract called for the construction and operation of eight river push boats and 144 hopper barges. The barges will be operated in four-by-four convoys of 16 to transport the iron ore, in lots of approximately 40,000 tonnes per shipment, down the waterway.
The round-the-clock operation will be conducted 11 months per year with minimum downtime.
Naval architecture firm Robert Allan Ltd. has designed all the fleet of push boats and barges. The barges, each measuring 61 metres x 15 metres x 4.27 metres, are conventional Mississippi-style hopper barges designed to maximum allowable convoy dimensions.
Further, they must carry the required 2,500-tonne deadweight with limited draught due to restricted under keel clearance, with a combination of "box" shaped barges for mid-convoy and rake-ended barges for the ends.
The vessels will be built by ZPMC in China. Robert Allan Ltd. provided construction oversight services for the barge fleet on behalf of the owners. Additionally, ZPMC maintains its own semi-submersible ocean transporter fleet, which will be used to deliver the barges once they are finished.
The last batch of barges will also deliver a 54-metre x 25.2-metre 1,600-tonne floating dry dock, also built at ZPMC and designed by Robert Allan Ltd., for use by Hidrovias do Brasil in servicing the new fleet. An additional 16 barges are currently under local fabrication at CIE in Asuncion, Paraguay.
The push boats, designated as RApide 4500-class, are limited to a 2.1-metre draught in the dry season and 2.4 metres in the wet season. The contract for construction of the eight push boats was awarded to Uzmar of Turkey, and the first two vessel of class are currently completing owner acceptance trials.
The push boats measure 46.5 metres in length, 16.5 metres in width, and are powered by diesel-electric generators and Schottel Z-drive thrusters. Each vessel is outfitted for a complement of 18.
The first two push boats will be loaded onto a heavy lift ship for the trans-Atlantic voyage to Uruguay within the first quarter of 2014. The other six push boats will follow, with all vessels to be delivered to Uruguay by the third quarter of 2015. Ore movements will start in October 2014.
