A consortium comprised of Dutch dredging companies Boskalis and Van Oord along with Abu Dhabi’s NMDC and Belgium’s Jan de Nul will carry out a $1.5 billion expansion project on the Suez canal. The contract was awarded by the Suez Canal Authorities and each partner will take an equal share of $375 million.
The project will require construction of a parallel section of the canal with a length of approximately 50 kilometres to allow ships to simultaneously transit in two directions. Dredging will be executed by a fleet of 17 cutter suction dredgers with widening and deepening of existing sections to a depth of 24 metres. The project will commence in 2014 and is expected to be completed in 2015.
Source: Port Finance International
