Australia: Darwin Harbour Dredging Kicks Off

The dredging project at the Darwin Harbour has officially kicked off, the ABC News reports.

Barry Carbon, the chair of the Icthys Project Expert Dredging Panel, last week stated that the Japanese gas giant Inpex is bringing in the largest dredge ship ever seen in Australia to the Northern Territory.

According to the Amateur Fishermen’s Association of the Northern Territory, the material dredged from the Darwin Harbour will be deposited 12 kilometres off Lee Point.

Extension of the Darwin Harbour shipping channel and dredging of berth pockets are required to allow large product tankers to gain access to the proposed LNG facility at Blaydin Point.

The contractor, Rotterdam-based Van Oord, will dredge approximately 15 million cubic metres of mainly hard soil from the harbour.

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Dredging Today Staff, August 28, 2012; Image: Van Oord