Van Oord’s new dredger hits the water

The first of two water injection dredgers (WIDs) for Van Oord was successfully launched last week under beautiful conditions at the Vahali yard in Serbia.

After launching, the WIDs will be transported to the yard in Zwijndrecht where the outfitting work will take place.

In July 2022, Van Oord ordered the construction of two additional state-of-the-art water injection vessels from Kooiman Marine Group after the successful operation of sister vessels Maas and Mersey in 2021.

The new vessels will have the same specifications, supplemented by innovative optimisations.

Energy management in this series of vessels was given special attention during the design phase.

The water injection vessels will be equipped with a hybrid energy management system and will be able to store energy in batteries that can be used later for propulsion and other purposes. Diesel-electric engines will reduce carbon emissions.

The new water injection vessels will comply with IMO TIER III legislation for reducing harmful NOx emissions and take account of EU STAGE V legislation.