One of the world’s largest dredges is set to arrive in Lyttelton Harbour for the port’s channel deepening project.
The 230 metre-long Fairway will collect sand and silt from the seabed of the harbour as it works to widen the navigation channel by 20 metres and deepen it to allow vessels with a 13.3 metre draft.
The first stage of work will see the Fairway lengthen the channel by 2.5km and will take 11 weeks to complete.
The initial stage of the dredging programme has been awarded to Netherlands-based contractor Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V.
The Fairway, built in 1997, is one of Boskalis’ 30 trailing suction hopper dredgers.
It will travel from Mumbai, India, after completing its latest project and make a stop in Singapore for a clean before heading to Lyttelton Harbour in August.
Cawthron Institute biosecurity team leader Oli Floerl says many steps are being taken “in making sure this dredge has minimal biosecurity risk”.
Lyttelton Port Company (LPC) was granted resource consent in March 2018 to dredge the harbour shipping channel to increase its draft and allow for bigger ships.
