Dutch dredging and marine services contractor Jan De Nul announced it has commenced a new dredging program in Australia’s Port Hedland. Dredging vessel J.F.J. De Nul started capital dredging and reclamation works for the development of the Lumsden Point General Cargo Facility and Logistics Hub.
Port Hedland is situated on the North-West coast of Australia and is Australia’s largest export port by annual throughput. The expansion of the port will enable increased in capacity to export battery metals, such as lithium and copper concentrates, and import renewable energy infrastructure, including wind turbines and blades.
Cutter suction dredger J.F.J. De Nul will dredge up to one million cubic meters to establish a deeper access channel, a swing basin and two berth pockets suitable to navigate and accommodate a range of vessels, including bulk carriers, tankers and roll-on/roll-off vessels carrying wheeled cargo, like cars or trucks. Additionally, an area of 10 hectares, bunded by a seawall, will be reclaimed for the future Lumsden Point wharf structure.
The works are conducted in adherence to a strict ‘Environmental and Cultural Heritage Management Plan’, managing elements like the project footprint, marine environmental quality and surrounding mangroves.
The dredged material will be pumped via a floating pipeline into a designated land reclamation area. Suitable fill material will remain in the reclamation area fine material and tailing water pumped into a silt settlement area three kilometres further away. This settlement area, constructed during previous projects for this purpose, will allow the fines to settle before surplus tailing water below thresholds is released to the port environment. During the dredging activities, water quality is monitored continuously. If trigger levels are at risk of exceedance, immediate action is taken to minimise the risk of impacts to the surrounding habitats, such as mangroves, macro algae and corals. Baseline and post-dredge surveys will follow up on any potential impact on the environment.
Richard King, Dredging and Survey Manager, Pilbara Ports, said, “We’re pleased to have Jan de Nul working closely with Pilbara Ports’ Dredging Team throughout the technically challenging dredging and reclamation works at Lumsden Point. The areas where the dredged materials are going to be reclaimed will transform the current mudflat into the platform that all the future infrastructure will be built on, so this is an exceptionally important part of the Lumsden Point project.”
Wim Cosaert, Area Manager at Jan De Nul Group, said, “There is quite a bit of complexity involved in this project. To start with: it’s a relatively small reclamation area. Soft substrates require that we spread the material as much as possible to provide a future platform for the land backed wharf. Therefore, all water and fine material that we guide into the land reclamation area must be pumped out immediately with multiple pumps to a more distant settlement area. There, after settling of the fine material, the water will flow back into the environment.”
