Dredgers prepare EL for bigger car carriers

TERRY HUTSON DREDGERS ARE currently hard at work in East London ensuring that the river port is able to handle the newer and larger pure car carriers (PCCs). The Durban-based dredger Crane, named for the bird and not the bucket crane on its foredeck, is busy on the West Bank helping clear rock and silt from the area close to the car terminal, where additional berths have been proposed. According to the NPA’s Terry Taylor, the aim of the project is to increase the current draught of 9.3m to 10m to cater for future needs of the PCCs. The second departmental dredger in port is the trailing hopper dredger Ingwenya, also owned by the NPA Dredging Services, which is currently working in the sand trap outside the port. The trap is designed to catch sand moving along the coast – the so-called littoral drift, which if ignored would rapidly silt up the port entrance. In addition the NPA has chartered a 2000m³ trailing suction hopper dredger Freja R for use at various South African ports. This will supplement departmental maintenance dredging capacity while the NPA’s own dredgers undergo maintenance. Freja R is currently working in the East London entrance channel. At Richards Bay another non-departmental dredger, Volvox Iberia, was chartered to maintain the sand trap at the port and also to transfer sand taken from this area along the city’s beaches, which have been severely eroded by recent strong seas and storms.