Dutch dredging contractor Van Oord has just shared this interesting photo of the company’s backhoe Simson and split hopper barge Pieter Caland working in the Bay of Guanabara, Brazil.
The company has been active in Brazil for decades and has completed more than forty dredging and marine engineering projects along the Brazilian coast.
One of these projects was dredging of the Guanabara Bay located in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
From June 2016 to March 2017, Van Oord has been deploying a range of modern equipment to widen the access channel in the bay over a distance of 5.5 kilometers.
The company reported that in the course of several months, more than 2.8 million cubic meters of material was dredged on the instructions of the federal government of Brazil. As a result of the widening, the port of Rio de Janeiro is now accessible to super post panama vessels.
According to Van Oord’s Area Manager South America, Tim Helbo, the widening of the access channel now offers the port of Rio de Janeiro the opportunity for further expansion, contributing to the region’s economic growth.