Following the sailing of the first three vessels through the new passage last month, the Jan de Nul Group today announced that as of Thursday 6 August 2015 the new Suez Canal in Egypt is officially open.
The Luxembourg-based Jan de Nul Group, which specialises in dredging and marine construction activities, stated that it was responsible for a third of the overall project, with J.P.J De Nul commenting that the company was "very proud".
"It is truly an iconic structure," De Nul added. "It belongs to the same category as Pal Island in Dubai and Chek Lap Kok in Hong Kong. In less than a year 250 million cubic metres were dredged, of which 33.4% was done by us. An unmatched feat."
The Group reported that the project had presented several challenges due to the size and scale of the project, as well as its unusually short time frame, claiming that the achievement of such a project in less than twelve months was unprecedented.
De Nul continued: "For us as dredgers, the only way of realising this project was by partnering up. In total, six dredgers participated in this project, divided into two consortia. But the heavy weight of the dredging, that was us, without question. It was logical for the Jan de Nul Group to take on most of the dredging work. Thanks to the significant wave of investments we have experienced over the past decade, we have the largest and most powerful fleet of cutter dredgers in the world. As the backdrop was largely composed of compacted sand, and others of solid clay, it was precisely this type of ship we needed for this work."
The Suez Canal is the shortest sea route between Europe and Asia, with a length of about 170 km. To increase the channel capacity and increasing industrial activity in the region, the channel has been split over a length of 50 km. The distance over which the ship can intersect has become considerably longer, which reduces the waiting time. The work was divided into 5 lots and awarded to two consortia. The consortium which included Jan De Nul Group has executed lots 2-5, accounting for 200 million m³ about 250 million m³. The rest of the work was performed by the other consortium.
For this project, Jan De Nul Group reportedly mobilised seven cutter dredgers, namely JFJ De Nul, Hondius, Kaerius, Fernão de Magalhães, Ibn Battuta, Leonardo da Vinci and Zheng He. Together, the cutter dredgers have a total installed diesel power of 134,720 kilowatts. The employee headcount reached 2,000 people, about half of whom were local employees and the other half Europeans.
Photos by Jan de Nul Group
