Jan de Nul Dredges Ecuadorian Port of Manta

Jan de Nul has started dredging at the Ecuadorian Port of Manta, following a crowded tender last year, which was awarded to Envisan, the environmental division of the Jan de Nul Group. Local Port Authority Autoridad Portuaria de Manta (APM) said it expects Envisan to dredge the access channel as well as the port’s four berths. The project will help the port increase demand, as it currently operates only berth No. 4. APM expects to bring the port’s depth to 12.5 meters (41.01 feet). As a result, the Port of Manta will have the country’s largest draft, surpassing that of Port of Esmeraldas (11.5 meters, 37.73 feet), Port of Guayaquil (9.75 meters, 31.99 feet) and Port of Bolivar (10 meters, 328 feet), it estimated. The Ecuadorian Port of Manta was last dredged between 1998 and 1999 on an 18-month project. APM said the project will last four months and should remove 600,000 cubic meters (785,000 cubic yards) of sediments. Jan de Nul is using backhoe dredge Postnik Yakovlev, trailing suction hopper dredge (TSHD) Pedro Alvares Cabral and split hopper barges Astrolabe and Concepcion.