The barge is 70.50m long, 10.50m wide, 2.90m draught and an order volume of 4.9 million euros – these figures sum up the modern hopper barge that will join the fleet of the port management company bremenports during the second half of the year.

“This is a big day for the ports of Bremerhaven and Bremen,” said Robert Howe, Technical Managing Director of bremenports, at the ceremony in Foxhol. “Both Bremen’s government and bremenports are banking on sustainable port operations which pay due attention to environmental protection. One of the targets of our greenports strategy is to reduce shipping emissions at local level.” Accordingly, said Howe, the fleet of bremenports vessels was now undergoing ecological modernisation.

LNG is an eco- and climate-friendly alternative to conventional fuels, said the bremenports MD, which means that the emission of sulphur oxides and particulates can be reduced to virtually nil. “Emissions of nitrogen oxides will be reduced by around 85%, carbon dioxide by approximately 20%.”

Right now, the new-build vessel, which will bear the name “greenports 1”, still bears very little resemblance to a ship. At the ceremony on Thursday, the hull went down the slipway without superstructures, engines or other equipment. The gas-diesel-electric propulsion system still has to be tested by Sandfirden, the engine supplier, before it is installed, to ensure optimum interaction of the power generators (two gas engines, one diesel engine, one battery unit consisting of ten individual blocks, the drive system and on-board electronic equipment.

The two tanks, each of which can hold six cubic metres of LNG, are currently being manufactured in Asia and are scheduled for installation in June. They will receive their first filling of LNG at the shipyard shortly afterwards. “Once the vessel is in operation, fuel will be delivered by truck in Bremen or Bremerhaven,” explained Howe, adding that bremenports would also have to provide additional training for the crews, as this is a mandatory requirement for LNG-powered barges.

The SCHN shipyard is a relatively new company which has concentrated on the production of gas tankers for seagoing and inland shipping since it was founded in 2012. To date, SCHN has built one barge and four small seagoing ships. Three of these five vessels were equipped with LNG propulsion plant.

“LNG as a propulsion technology is still a niche market in the shipbuilding industry,” says Roelof Kregel, Technical Managing Director of the Dutch shipyard. He expects to see an increase in demand for the eco-friendly technology in future. “Building this barge for the ports of Bremen was a landmark project for the market,” said Kregel. “We deliver good work and hope to receive further orders – including orders for more hopper barges from bremenports.”

The project has quite a challenge in store – unexploded ordnance (UXO).

The village of Cadzand is located in the south west of the Netherlands, on the shores of the North Sea. Its old marina entrance needed to be updated and the harbour was to be deepened. Not a simple job taking into account that conventional Second World War explosives were hidden in the seabed. Martens & Van Oord was up for the job – using a DOP submersible dredge pump in the process.

The DOP350 was attached to one of Martens & Van Oord’s pontoon-based excavators. The DOP pumped the bottom material – sand and occasionally UXOs – to a reinforced screening installation. From there, another Damen pump was used to bring the screened sand further to replenish the nearby shores. The choice for using the DOP was a simple one: the submersed dredge pump ensures a continuous process (in UXO-areas) contrary to mechanical dredging.

For sand mining purposes, a somewhat customised sand mining head with plenty of jetwater was fitted. This DOP head was designed for mining a maximum concentration using pressurised water to fluidise the bottom material.

Damen Dredging Equipment is proud that its DOP submersible dredge pump has been chosen by Martens & Van Oord to play a vital role in this extraordinary dredging project.

Tideworks’ container management software suite will ensure real-time communications between all parties at Port Lafito, a critical requirement given that the facility is expected to efficiently serve the needs of both Haitian and international markets.
“Port Lafito is incredibly important to the Haiti supply chain and it’s critical that the terminal operates smoothly,” said Pierre Liautaud, CEO at Port Lafito. “We want to make sure we’re running the most advanced, up-to-date systems available to ensure efficiency at Haiti’s first modern container terminal and we’re confident that partnering with Tideworks has helped us achieve this. We’re very pleased with the performance of Tideworks’ TOS system since go-live and look forward to continuing to work with their team.”

GB Group has deployed Tideworks’ Mainsail Vanguard core TOS, Forecast web portal, Spinnaker Planning Management System, and its Traffic Control equipment dispatch system. Tideworks provided all associated implementation services, including project management, software configuration and installation, user training and go-live assistance. Moving forward, Tideworks will continue delivering its platinum software maintenance and support services, which include 24/7 technical support and all software upgrades as well as remote support of the IT infrastructure under an information technology services agreement.

“This project is very significant to us because of the economic impact Port Lafito will have on the nation of Haiti,” said Michael Schwank, president at Tideworks Technology. “It has been very gratifying to help GB Group develop Port Lafito into a modern cargo handling facility, and we’re thrilled to be involved as they begin operations. We’re also very pleased to further expand our presence in the Caribbean and hope to continue doing so in the future.”

The first vessel call at Port Lafito was Seaboard Marine’s M/V Gluecksburg, a 1,732 TEU container vessel, in January 2016. This marked the official go-live of the terminal. In addition to the port terminal, GB Group operates an off-dock facility at Chancerelle, which will also be managed by the Tideworks TOS solution.