Van Oord awarded Averijhaven silt removal work

The Rijkswaterstaat, the executive agency of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, has awarded Van Oord a contract to design and carry out the removal of silt from the Averijhaven depot in IJmuiden.

After the removal of the contaminated silt, the area will be developed into an energy port.

The contract has a value of €18 million (US$21.17 million) and preparations will start in the spring of 2021.

The Averijhaven is located adjacent to the shipping route in the direction of the sea lock at IJmuiden (the Noorderbuiten Canal) and the Tata Steel site. For a long time, it served as a dredging depot for the Rijkswaterstaat, but was no longer used in recent years.

The new energy port will serve as an operating base for the construction and maintenance of offshore wind farms that will be built in the years ahead.

For this remediation project, Van Oord will be deploying a cutter suction dredger. The cutter suction dredger will transport the silt from the depot via a fully enclosed system to a transport vessel, probably a large trailing suction hopper dredger.

The trailing suction hopper dredger will then transport the material to a depot for proper disposal.