Boskalis’ Water Injection Dredger Terra Plana Busy in Portsmouth

The Queen’s Harbor Master Portsmouth has announced that routine maintenance dredging will be carried out between Fountain Lake Corner and Portsmouth International Port from 16-18 November 2016.

The contractor for these works is Boskalis Westminster Ltd.

The vessel conducting this task will be the Terra Plana, Boskalis’ new water injection dredger.

“She will display the appropriate signals from the COLREGS when conducting dredging operations,” the Harbor Master said in its announcement.

“Terra Plana’s movements will be de-conflicted from other movements by QHM Harbor Control in the usual manner.” 

Water injection dredgers are often used in small, shallow ports and marinas because they have good manoeuvrability and can dredge very close to embankments and quay walls.

An injection beam located underneath the vessel injects large volumes of water under low pressure into silt or fine sand in order to resuspend it.

The sediment mixture turns into a density current, which is then removed with the help of gravity.

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