Plant and equipment

Our plant and equipment makes us a reliable partner in all fields of hydraulic engineering, a partner that can deliver high-quality results. That is why our fleet contains a wide variety of machines.

Hopper dredgers: a hopper dredger is a vessel that is equipped with a suction cleaner. While it is on the water, a suction pipe trails along the bed of the waterway removing or collecting sand and silt. In order to suck up denser soil types, we have a jet installation on board that can blast such matter to pieces. When it comes to deepening shipping lanes, the most frequent choice is for the trailing suction dredging method, as this results in a smooth surface. When substantial amounts of sand need to be collected, we can change the drag head for a cutter head. This means that the hopper pushes the pipe into the sand, sucking up sand until, in a short space of time, the vessel is full. Once that has happened it can sail to wherever the sand is needed, where it can release its load. The way the sand is released can take various forms. Opening doors on the bottom of the vessel and dumping the sand is one way, expelling the sand through a pipe at high pressure is another. The latter method can be used at sea or on land, and has a reach of up to several kilometres as per the customer's wishes. A third option is to spray the load over the top of the vessel. This is known as 'rainbowing', and is usually used in shallow areas where a fully-laden ship would otherwise run aground.

Cutter suction dredgers: with our CSDs, we can smooth out a riverbed to a very high degree. This is due to a large cutter head which cuts into the bed at the required depth and angle. As with our hopper dredgers, the excess is sucked up and shipped to another location. The advantage of cutter suction dredgers is that they can be deployed in a wide range of soil types.

Hopper barges: we also have various self-propelled hopper barges, which are equipped with hydraulic horizontally-manoeuvrable ground gates (28 per vessel), so that we have control over the material deposited. As the gates move horizontally, we are also able (even in shallow water) to discharge beneath the vessel.

Elevator barges: to transport dredged material or other material for dumping by water to the desired destination, we use various elevator barges. These barges can be loaded or discharged with our own cranes or suction dredgers.

Crane ships and pontoons: where a hopper or cutter dredger is unsuitable or impractical, we can deploy hydraulic or duty cycle cranes. Where precision is required, we use cranes with specially-designed survey equipment so that we can work within given tolerance ranges. Naturally, we can also equip these machines with other accessories such as backhoes, stoppers, buckets, orange peel grabs etc.

Hydraulic (caterpillar) excavators: are especially suited to extra support work relating to excavation, slope filling, levelling of material at the water's edge, unloading vessels etc. This is usually done with a an excavator bucket, stopper or orange peel grab.

Pontoons: we have pontoons in all shapes and sizes. Pontoons equipped for a range of uses, such as sinking mattresses and moving plant and equipment, to working, a base for operations or fitting culverts. Last but not least, they can also be used as a mooring point.

Special equipment for our explosives sweeping operations: we can deploy this equipment for every aspect of the process from detection to probing, safe exploration and separation to defusing all types of munitions, whether in water or on land. We have access to all types of equipment to achieve this, such as penetration- and drilling frames / rigs for depth detection, probing equipment, various types of munitions separators, anti-shrapnel covers, resistant cranes, inspection units and munitions dumps.