World's largest dredgers to join fleet working at Suez Canal project

The world's two largest dredgers will arrive in Egypt in May and June for the expansion of the Suez Canal, executive director of dredging works at the project Wagdy Zaky said.

Dutch dredging company Van Oord will send its trailing suction hopper dredger "Utrecht", with a capacity of 16,000 cubic meters, to the canal on May 27, Zaky said.

Trailing suction hopper dredger "Oranje", which is part of the fleet of Dutch company Boskalis, will arrive on June 12 with a capacity of also 16,000 cubic meters, he said.

With the new dredgers, a total of 42 vessels will be working in the new canal and will complete all dredging activities before the end of June as scheduled, he said.

The experimental operation of the new canal will start in July as seamarks and buoys are being installed in the areas where dredging works have been completed, he said, noting that 110 buoys will be set up.

The new Suez Canal project indicates the construction of a parallel section of the canal to allow ships to simultaneously transit in two directions as well as the widening and deepening of a number of existing sections.