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18 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • OCTOBER 2014 CSD500 assembled and ready for its fi rst job. A Nigerian customer added its ninth Damen dredger to its fl eet. The Cutter Suction Dredger type CSD500 was chosen due to the availabili- ty of Damen Field Services in Nigeria, the builder said, adding that the local pres- ence was even more practical in view of the challenging assembly conditions. For Damen’s Service Hub Nigeria this job is one of the fi rst successes. Damen Shipyards Group usually has a spares-stock available in Nigeria for stan- dard dredgers such as the CSD500. In ad- dition, Damen fi eld service engineers are continuously available locally. For cutter suction dredgers, Damen offers main- tenance contracts to keep the vessels in shape. This results in maximum uptime of the (modular) dredger and a satisfi ed con- tractor who can do exactly that for which his dredger has been designed: making money by continuous dredging. The most challenging side of this job was the assembly. It was planned at a scrapyard on the swampy sidebranch of a river (see photo below). Local conditions were worsened by the rainy season. The locally sourced cranes of 250t and 500t got stuck in the mud more than once. When the cranes arrived at the assembly site, the ground had to be strengthened. Moreover, the dredger had to be hoisted no less than 25 m from the river bank as conditions were too swampy right next to the shoreline. The Damen Cutter Suction Dredger 500 dredges at maximum of 14m and pumps some 4,000 cu. m. of mixture per hour. The standard dredger has been outfi tted with an accommodation unit. The unit in- cludes a kitchen, a sitting area and sanitary facilities. The dredger currently works on a land reclamation job near Warri. www.damendredging.com DREDGING UPDATE Cutter Suction Dredge CSD500 from DamenSD500 from Damen (Photo cour tesy of Damen) Assembly was done in challenging con- ditions (Photo cour tesy of Damen) MR #10 (18-25).indd 18 10/2/2014 1:30:07 PM
