Port of Rio Grande Dredging 65 Percent Complete

Maintenance dredging at the Brazilian Port of Rio Grande, in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, is 65 percent complete, said Fernando Estima, superintendent at local state-owned port administrator, the Superintendence of the Port of Rio Grande, SUPRG. He made his remarks in late April during a lunch meeting promoted by a local trade chamber. A consortium made up of Jan de Nul and DEME Group’s Brazilian subsidiary, Dragabras, was allowed in mid-December 2018 to resume maintenance dredging at the Port of Rio Grande. The SUPRG executive also addressed some of the project’s issues. He said the halt in the maintenance dredging initiative, as well as legal issues, considerably increased the project’s cost. “The legal issues made everyone review our proceedings to make sure we are doing the (dredging) project within the (scope) of what has agreed upon,” he said. Estima estimated dredging works to finish by June 2019. Estima said the SUPRG management will work on three key topics, including a review of the existing management model, a continuous dredging plan, and the port’s traffic control.