Dredging and

Dredgers

What is Dredging?
 Removal of soil from an underwater location and
transporting it to another location

 Dredging is the operation of removing material

from under water. In all situations the operation is
undertaken by specialist floating plant, known as a
dredger.

A dredge is a device for scraping or sucking the seabed, used for dredging.
A dredger is a ship or boat equipped with a dredge. The terms are sometimes
interchanged.

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Phases of dredging

 Excavation
 Lifting
 Transportation
 Disposal

Types of dredging
 Capital Dredging
 • “excavation of material to deepen or
create navigational channels and berths to
provide additional harbor infrastructure or
provide access for deeper draught vessels”

 • “also applies to removal of areas of the

seabed during construction works...”

Construction - the removal of materials previously undisturbed to

facilitate new navigation channels or water projects, e.g., locks and dams.

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Types of dredging
 Maintenance Dredging
 • “removal of accumulated sediments from
harbor channels and berths to ensure a safe
depth of water for navigational purposes”

 • Consider also - beneficial disposal

environmental dredging
marine aggregate extraction

Maintenance - The periodic and repetitive removal of accumulated sediment

from navigation channels and harbors to maintain authorized depths and
widths.

Why Dredge?
 Capital works  creation of new or improved
facilities, such as harbour basins, deeper navigation
channels, etc.
 navigation
 infrastructure
 coastal engineering
 mining industry
 offshore industry

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 Why Dredge?
 Maintenance works  maintain
design depth of navigation channels
and ports

Why Dredge?
 Remedial works  careful removal of
contaminated material and treatment, reuse or
relocation of the material

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Reasons for dredging ?
 Recover material which has some value or use (form of
mining)

 To create greater depth for navigation (initial or maintenance)

 Creation of new land (Land Reclamation)

 Beach nourishment.

 Civil engineering construction works (pipelines,...)

 Environmental dredging (some sediment are highly

contaminated)

The dredging project…

 Dredging Project must be adequately designed and
supervised.

 Economically feasible.

 Dredgers are expensive and rely in high utilization and

production.

 Geotechnical investigation to determine the nature of the

material to be dredged.

 Every cubic meter of material has to be relocated.

 Due to environmental constraints it is difficult to find places to

dispose of the material in case of contamination.

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Types of dredger

 Depending upon the method used to

transport loosened material from the sea-
bed to the surface they may be classified
as:
 Mechanical dredgers
 Hydraulic dredgers

 Other types

Mechanical Dredgers.
 Bucket ladder dredger
 Grab dredger
 Backhoe/dipper dredger

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Bucket dredger

Pontoon mounted Grab Dredger

Pontoon: a structure used in underwater work

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Examples of various types of rope
operated grab buckets

Production cycle for pontoon

mounted grab

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 Backhoe dredger

Hydraulic Dredgers
 Profile or plain suction dredger
 Cutter suction dredger
 Trailing suction hopper dredger

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 Hydraulic machinery are machines and tools which
use fluid power to do simple work. In this type of
machine, high-pressure liquid — called hydraulic fluid —
is transmitted throughout the machine to
various hydraulic motors and hydraulic cylinders. The
fluid is controlled directly or automatically by control
valves and distributed through hoses and tubes.
Hydraulic machinery is operated by the use of hydraulics,
where a liquid is the powering medium.

Suction hoper dredger

A dredger used to remove and transport soil from water beds by dragging a long suction tube (2)
with a draghead (1) over the bed, loosening the soil in front of the suction head. The material is
stored in the hopper (3), which is then discharged through the bottom doors (4), pumped through a
floating pipeline, or ‘rainbowed’ (i.e. discharged through the jet nozzle (5) to a reclamation area.

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Cutter suction dredger

Cutter suction dredger

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Dredging vessels
 Snag boat
 A snag boat is a river boat, resembling a barge
with superstructure for crew accommodations, and deck-
mounted cranes and hoists for removing snags and other
obstructions from rivers and other shallow waterways.
 Used to break up logjams and to clear debris, sunken
vessels, and dilapidated piers that may be hazardous to
navigation.
 Mechanical - Dipper dredge and clamshell dredge
 - removes hard packed material or debris
 - cannot handle fine-grained sediment, such as silt or sand
 - places materials into barges for transport to disposal sites

Dredging vessels
 Hydraulic – cutter head pipeline dredge
 - uses rotating cutter at end of arm to suck
loose materials into pipeline for deposit at
a disposal site
 - can work 24 hours a day
 - limited capability in rough weather
 - pipeline can be obstruction to navigation
 - operates primarily in shallow draft
navigation channels

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Dredging vessels
 Hydraulic - self-propelled hopper dredge
 - stores sediment within vessel for disposal
later at approved site
 - works in deep water (primarily in harbors
and ports)
 - cannot dredge continuously

 - can operate in rough water

Ancillary equipment
 Barges
 Tugs
 Survey launches
 The rock breaker

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 Site Investigation
 Characterization of the material to be dredged

 Determination of the total volume to be dredged

 The hydrography of the dredging and disposal locations

 Bathymetric surveys to determine bed levels

 Geotechnical investigations to assess the nature of the material

 Environmental surveys to identify factors which may affect the

dredging and disposal of the completed works.

Measurements
 In principle, the three ways of
measuring quantities are:

 At the dredging site

 In the means of conveyance

 At the disposal site

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Types of Disposal Sites
 Ocean Placement
 - off-shore site approved by Environmental
Protection Agency for disposal
 - hopper dredge or barge with material
from inlets, bars, and main approaches
 - vessel opens hull and allows sediment to
drift to bottom of ocean

Disposal area distance increases costs

Types of Disposal Sites

 Beach Nourishment
 - placement of material on or near a beach
 - usually to replenish an eroding beach

 - typically done with pipeline and hopper

dredges

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Types of Disposal Sites
 Open Water Placement
 - placement of dredged
materials in near-coastal or
inland waters
 - may include contaminated
materials placed in deep pits
or bottom depressions
 - material is capped in a
precisely engineered manner
to ensure cap stays in place
and isolates material from
environment.

Types of Disposal Sites

 Within Banks Placement
 - generally occurs on river
system
 - material is placed on banks
or downstream of shoals
along shoreline
 - material, usually coarse-
grained sand can be used
commercially

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Environmental Benefits of
Dredging
Can be used for the following purposes:
 - wetland construction
 - borrow pit reclamation
 - landfill cover
 - construction aggregate
 - beach nourishment
 - wildlife habitat

Scientifically approved measures to isolate

contaminated materials from environment

Environmental Aspects of Dredging

 Mankind interferes with environment

 The act of dredging and relocation of dredged

material is an environmental impact (positive or
negative, short- or long-term)

 Changes to the environment:

 coastal or river morphology, e.g. amenity, wildlife habitat;
 water currents and wave climates;
 reduction or improvement of water quality;
 industrial development;
 relocation of polluted materials to safe, contained areas.

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Environmental Aspects of Dredging

Water movement under waves at different depths. The

reduced wave action at the seabed inside the dredged
area may increase sedimentation.

Environmental Aspects of Dredging

 (Short-term) effects of
the dredging activity:
 suspended sediment;
 overflow from hoppers;
 loss of dredged material
during transport (hopper,
pipeline);
 disposal or loss of benthic
fauna at disposal site.
Benthic fauna refers to the tiny creatures

found on and within the seabed.

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 Interpretation of Results
Near-Field Far-Field
Environmental Effects Environmental Effects
(< 1 kilometre) (> 1 kilometre)
Short-Term Dredging Site Dredging Site
Environmental Turbidity None generally expected
Effects Burial/removal of organisms
(< 1 week) Reduced water quality
Placement Site Placement Site
Burial of organisms Offsite movement of chemicals
Turbidity via physical transport
Reduced water quality
Acute chemical toxicity
Long-Term Dredging Site Dredging Site
Environmental Disturbance by ship traffic None generally expected
Effects Removal of contaminated sediment
(> 1 week)
Placement Site Placement Site
Altered substrate type Offsite movement of chemicals
Altered community structure via physical transport and/or
Chronic chemical toxicity biota migration
Bioaccummulation

Time space matrix of potential effects associated with dredging and

dredged material placements

Questions….???

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