A peek into the wonderful underwater world

Since the early 1980s, today's DUC Marine Group has been active in the wonderful underwater world. The specialist in the construction, maintenance and repair of marine structures has been involved in a wide variety of work at home and abroad. Work has been done for a variety of clients, from Australia to Venezuela, and from Norway to India. Director Henk Kapitein talks about the "secret" of the Urk-based company. 

"Thinking in solutions is our greatest strength," says Captain. "We use our years of knowledge and experience to propose the most economically sound solution for each project. This has not hurt us. Many customers know how to find us again after an initial collaboration. We operate in both onshore and offshore and specialize mainly in the more technically challenging work. Nevermind that we can also step in for ad hoc work, such as removing a stone in front of a sluice gate or malfunctions at a sewage treatment plant."

DUC Marine Group has made its mark in the underwater world.

Lake Kivu

DUC Marine Group has more than earned its spurs in the underwater world. Captain: "We are involved in work on locks, dams, inlets, the construction and maintenance of wind farms, and so on. But constructing and repairing culverts, installing cathodic protection, underwater drilling and cutting with diamond tools, and installing chemical anchors are also part of our core business. Now, among other things, we are engaged in a project in which we are assisting in the repair of an offshore installation at a depth of 33 meters, we will soon be engaged in sinker repairs in the Vecht and inspections of the cooling water system at a large power plant. Starting next year, we will assist with the construction of a floating gas transmission pipeline in Lake Kivu, Rwanda. The pipeline system has a total length of 22 kilometers and will be suspended in the water at a depth of 25 meters. In short, our scope is broad and very varied."

Thinking in solutions emerged early on during the pile repairs of the Pier in Scheveningen. DUC Marine Group devised an economically much more favorable alternative to individually drying the piles each time with a cofferdam. "We devised a system to simply perform the pile repairs underwater. It turned out to be much cheaper and the result comparable or even better. We later applied the same technique to the preservation of a pile structure in Rotterdam. And so we come up with the right solution for every project."