DREDGING ROUNDUP Latin America
COSTA RICA
Costa Rica’s Nosara River is being dredged and a dike is being constructed in order to save the surrounding communities from flood problems reports the Voice of Guanacaste. The channel through the river in the northwestern corner of the small Central American nation is being expanded and a nine-meter (30-foot) dike is being built. The first test of the work came in early October when the region received heavy rainfall and the dike withstood the water level rise and the river drained as it was supposed to. Much of the work is being conducted by company HHB Consa the publication reported.
GUYANA
Guyanese Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon told the press of the small South American nation that the dredging of the Demerara River is insufficient and may need to be increased to 24-hour-a-day work. The Demerara River handles 80 percent of Guyana’s imports and exports but it has been poorly maintained. It once had a dredged depth of 22.5 feet but as of early this year sediments had built up so much that it was reduced to just 13 feet which has hurt the country’s cruise ship business. The country has been using a 30-year-old hopper suction dredge but it has not proved up to the challenge. Luncheon told reporters that the situation in the Demerara has become urgent and the government will be looking for a private-sector partner to help with the task. (See also Guyana Officials Seeking Sollution for River Maintenance Problems IDR July/August 2012 issue.)
MEXICO
Mexican national oil company Pemex has contracted out the construction of a 38-kilometer (24-mile) subsea pipeline to Dragados Offshore (Dredging Offshore) a unit of Spanish company Grupo ACS according to business publication BNAmericas. The $199 million contract will pay for the 36-inch oil and gas pipeline to connect the production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico to the Dos Bocas marine terminal in Tabasco state. The contract was expected to be signed at the end of October and granted Dragados about 10 months to complete the project.
MEXICO
Baltimore-based dredging company Ellicott Dredges LLC has chosen Makisur S.A. as its distributor for dredge parts in Mexico. Ellicott has a 15-year relationship with the Mexican company which has helped it place dozens of Ellicott Dredges into the Mexican market. The new Ellicott/ Makisur Parts Depot in Tabasco Mexico will maintain a stock of spare parts for Ellicott’s 370 and 670 Dragon model dredges. It will also be able to provide technical and on-site support for Ellicott dredges in Mexico.
ARGENTINA
Three dredges are now working to deepen the Barranqueras Creek one of the arms of the Parana River in the province of Chaco reported news outlet Terra Argentina. COPACRE S.A is conducting the work. and the dredges are being supplied by Northern Logistics Company S.A. (COLO– NO). It is being funded by the government of Chaco. The work began in late September with the dredge Romian I working on the wharf area at the Port of Barranqueras. Dredge Romina II began working to deepen the en– trance to the wharf while the third dredge Draga 264 deepened the areas around the petroleum terminal and the principal channel.
VENEZUELA
CCCC Shanghai Dredging Co. has completed dredging Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. The Hong Kong company had been hired to dredge the main channel through the lake. It used the dredge Xinhai Tiger 4 for the project which lasted 43 days and required overcoming big waves strong currents within the waterway construction shipping densities and large work area siltation. The company was paid $4.5 million for the project. Now the Xing– hai Tiger 4 has been relocated to the Orinoco River waterway construction.
BRAZIL
A conference on port finance is being held in Rio de Janeiro in November. The Port Finance International Brazil conference was expected to draw leaders in the Brazilian ports sector to discuss the rapidly evolv– ing sector of transportation financing in Brazil and discuss the challenges and opportunities in port development. The conference is scheduled for November 12 and 13. Recent legislation in Brazil made way for major port projects in Brazil. Dozens of ports are expected to take advantage of the new law and new funding opportunities in the coming years by expand– ing and deepening their waterways. Brazil has become a major market for dredging companies.
PERU
In December Peru’s government is expected to present a proposal to dredge Salaverry Port located just south of Trujillo on the country’s north– west coast. The port has been struggling with siltation and has estimated that at least 1.16 million cubic meters (1.52 million cubic yards) to be dredged. A bathymetric study was planned for November to better under– stand the scope of the problem. The country’s Ministry of Transportation and Communication expects the project to cost about $11 million.
