Ypres - Ypres-Yser Canal
For many years maintenance dredging had been non-existing on this canal due to lack of funding. In 2008 a budget was raised to dredge the canal to such an extend that a restricted passage to shipping was created. About 50% of the contract, at the Ypres side of the canal, has been carried out by Ghent Dredging.
This contract could serve as a perfect example in the way our dredging and environmental divisions were complementary to each other.
Dredging was carried out using a pontoon mounted 14-tonnes excavator.
Elevator barges loaded with silt were discharged alongside a pontoon equipped with an excavator fitted out with a DOP-1815 dredge pump. After adding water to the sludge the pump discharged the silt into dewatering areas.
Once inside these areas dredged silt is pumped into geocontainers added with polymers. Through the addition of polymers the dewatering process is accelerated and after a couple of days silt has turned into soil.