In the presence of guests and employees, Lydia van de Kerk, the wife of CFO Arjan van de Kerk, has[ds_preview] named Van Oord’s latest cutter suction dredger »Biesbosch« at the beginning of April 2016. The ceremony was held on the jetty at Van Oord’s Rotterdam office.
»Biesbosch« was built by Royal IHC at its yard in Sliedrecht, the Netherlands. The vessel forms part of the company’s strategy to modernise its fleet of cutter suction dredgers according to Van Oord safety and environmental standards, the company stated. As of mid-April, »Biesbosch« has been deployed for dredging works at the entrance of the Zeetoegang IJmond project, the construction of the new sea lock at IJmuiden, which is part of the locks programme of the Dutch Department of Public Works.
Furthermore, in Bilbao, Spain, the keel was laid of the first of two new trailing suction hopper dredgers. Carmen de la Barrera, Van Oord’s Quality Control inspector at the LaNaval yard, performed the ceremony. Underneath the first section, two euro coins were fixed: one with the portrait of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and one with the portrait of King Felipe VI of Spain. Both the »Vox Amalia« and its sister ship the »Vox Alexia« are due to be operational in 2017. The ships have a hopper capacity of approximately 18,000m3 each.
A new subsea rock installation vessel also forms part of the current Van Oord investment program. Recently, the company’s fleet was extended to include three small cutter suction dredgers and one small trailing suction hopper dredger.
