Belgian dredging group DEME has been awarded a contract as part of a joint venture for the widening of the Kiel Canal in Germany.
Works started in January 2020 and are expected to be completed in late 2023, according to DEME.
The Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration, represented by the WSA Kiel-Holtenau, commissioned the joint venture with the construction work to expand 4 km of the eastern section of the Kiel Canal. The contract has a total value of approximately EUR 99 million (USD 109.3 million) in which DEME’s subsidiaries Nordsee Nassbagger- und Tiefbau and Dredging International will handle the marine dredging works.
The eastern part of the Kiel Canal will be expanded from 44 m to a future minimum bottom width of 70 m, enabling larger ships to cross safely in this area.
As explained, the widening contributes significantly to increasing the efficiency of the waterway, which is important for international shipping.
Extensive landscaping measures will be carried out as part of the expansion of the canal cross-section. In total, around 2 million cbm of soil are to be moved, around 58,000 square meters of revetments are to be installed and over 1 million cbm of soil are to be dredged and dumped.
Last year, DEME also won another major deepening contract in Germany. Under the EUR 238 million deal, Nordsee Nassbagger- und Tiefbau and Dredging International were contracted to widen and deepen the 116 km long fairway between Cuxhaven and Hamburg to a level of -14.5 meters. Following the completion of the initial widenings of the Elbe, mega-ships with a combined width of up to 98 meters can now pass each other in a widened section of the Elbe known as the ‘passing box’.