Arrival of dredger kick-starts deepening of CT port

LAST WEEK saw the first significant step in the project to deepen Cape Town container terminal’s four berths with the arrival of the Danish-flagged dredger, Gefion R. Operated by Rhode and Nielsen, which was awarded the contract for deepening by Transnet, the 20-year old vessel of 2 985 gross tons steamed under her own power from Colombo to Durban, where she underwent repairs to her propeller before heading for the Mother City port. She was expected to start working last week, once a new crew had taken over, working one berth at a time till the end of November. The objective is to increase draught at all berths to 15.5 metres.