Dutch dredging and offshore giant Van Oord will return to Dubai at the end of this year to create an entirely new waterfront for the Deira Islands that it built for developer Nakheel between 2005 and 2008.
Valued at EUR100 million, the new contract has again been awarded by Nakheel. Speaking to IHS Maritime, Van Oord spokesman Robert de Bruin said, “We’ll commence execution in December 2015 – preparations are already in full swing.
“Deira Islands will become a new 15.3 km2 waterfront city in Dubai and part of the new scope is building a 23.5 km coastline and breakwaters. The two-year contract covers 8.5 km of beaches, 3.5 km of quay walls and 9.5 km of rock revetments at two of the four Deira Islands.
“The work includes a 4 km stretch of waterfront,” he added, “big enough to accommodate more than 500 yachts, at the 4.5 km2 south island. We will also construct 2 km of breakwaters to protect the newly-created basin and beachfront.
“The project will transform Dubai’s Deira district into a world class hub for tourism, living, retail and entertainment.”
Van Oord plans to deploy two cutter suction dredgers. “They’ll be in the same category and comparable to the 10,439 kW HAM 218,” De Bruin confirmed to IHS Maritime. “We will also deploy multipurpose pontoons and rock barges to build the breakwaters.”
IHS Maritime asked if trailing suction hopper dredgers would be used to create the beaches – and if that was likely, what size vessels? “It’s to be decided later,” De Bruin said.
“The project’s major challenges are to deliver on time and budget,” he concluded. “We are more than happy to finalise the Deira project – which started on the drawing board as the Palm – and now the challenge is to reshape and construct it as waterfront islands.”
Apart from Deira, Nakheel has previously engaged Van Oord for dredging and coastal work on such iconic waterfront projects as the Palm Jumeirah and The World, which added 300 km to Dubai’s coastline.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
