For Damen’s Service Hub Nigeria this job is one of the first successes. Damen Shipyards Group standardly has a spares-stock available in Nigeria for standard dredgers such as the CSD500. In addition, Damen field service engineers are continuously available locally. For cutter suction dredgers, Damen offers maintenance contracts to keep the vessels in tip-top condition. This results in maximum uptime of the (modular) dredger and a satisfied contractor who can do exactly that for which his dredger has been designed: making money by continuous dredging.
The most challenging side of this job was the assembly. It was planned at a scrap yard on the swampy side branch of a river. Local conditions were worsened by the rainy season. The locally sourced cranes of 250 tonees and 500 tonnes got stuck in the mud more than once. When the cranes arrived at the assembly site, the ground had to be strengthened. Moreover, the dredger had to be hoisted no less than 25m from the river bank as conditions were too swampy right next to the shoreline.
The Damen Cutter Suction Dredger 500 dredges at maximum 14m and pumps some 4.000 m3 of mixture per hour. The standard dredger has been outfitted with an accommodation unit. The unit includes a kitchen, a sitting area and sanitary facilities. The dredger currently works on a land reclamation job near Warri.