Amphibious excavator out of rental fleet Dutch dredging equipment manufacturer

Deployed on dredging project in Seine near Paris

Bell Dredging Pumps is a Dutch manufacturer of durable dredging pumps and dredging equipment. "We are in the business of designing, manufacturing, selling and renting dredging equipment worldwide that lasts a long time in the harsh conditions that on- and offshore work often faces," says Stef van der Bel, responsible for the rental fleet at Bell. For example, he recently arranged for a 20-ton Bell Amphibious Excavator for a dredging project in the Seine near Paris.

Construction pit future pump station

The BAE200, as the amphibious excavator is also called, was used in France to dredge a construction pit for a future pumping station on the Seine, which is to regulate the water level in Paris. "In a shallow pool, at a branch of the Seine, sheet piles were driven for a construction pit based on drawings," Stef explains. "We then dredged the construction pit and put the material to be removed into barges. Within a period of eight weeks, some 12,000 m³ Sand dredged away. And that at a depth of 6 meters relative to the water level."

Multifunctional amphibious excavator

"The 20-ton amphibious excavator hired through our French dealer PAJOT solutions de battage is equipped with side pontoons for additional buoyancy and 7-meter-long spud poles for anchoring," says Stef. "Also, our BAE200 is equipped with a GPS/RTK dredging system, for centimeter-accurate positioning. This amphibious machine was chosen quite deliberately because of the size of the construction pit: a lot of dredging had to be done in little space and then you have to move often. Besides all the other work equipment in that basin, there was no pontoon to go with it. Moreover, this floating excavator is multifunctional."

High pressure water jet pump

"When all the anchors were drilled, we afterwards sprayed the remaining drilling material loose, sucked it up and then dumped it on shore. For this, we equipped a small A-frame pontoon with a Bell 100 dredge pump, hydraulically driven by a powerpack. Like the high-pressure water jet on the head of the pump with which everything is first sprayed loose before it can be sucked up by the dredge pump. Because we cleaned up everything between the anchors, we were able to pour concrete underwater."

A solution for every challenge

Including amphibious excavators, cutter suction dredgers and heavy-duty dredge pumps, Bell Dredging Pumps' product range is both wide and deep. "Because we have machines that can work on land and water, as well as supplying all the associated tools for those machines, we have a solution for every challenge," says Stef. "And because we not only sell it but also rent it -we really have an extensive rental fleet-, we are an interesting party in large and smaller projects in the Netherlands and abroad."