Bucket dredger TEXEL unloads over 3.5 million m3 of sand

De Vries & van de Wiel is a nationwide contracting company that carries out complex works in a professional, socially responsible and sustainable manner. The company is part of the DEME group which also includes companies such as Dredging International and DIMCO. One of its appealing pieces of equipment is bucket suction dredger TEXEL. This has been deployed on behalf of Alliantie Markermeerdijken on the Marker Dikes project to, among other things, hydraulically unload ships.

DEME Group is a multifaceted company. "We dredge shipping channels, widen and deepen canals and ports, remediate land and water bottoms, strengthen flood defenses, clean soil and dredged material, make room for rivers, and extract, sail and unload sand for projects," says Project Manager Fred Hemstra. "Unloading sand by bucket dredger TEXEL has been a continuous process on Markermeer dikes. In work weeks of about 75 hours, from week 46 in 2019 to week 36 in 2021, over 3,500,000 m³ sand unloaded. This sand was brought in by as many as 4,700 hopper barges."

By means of high-pressure water, the sand is "liquefied" in the hopper barges. "This sand/water mixture was pumped by the in-house pumps of bucket dredger TEXEL through a 600 mm diameter steel pressure pipe to the actual work," Hemstra explained. "The distance to be covered varied from 600 m1 to up to 3,300 m1. Although the TEXEL has been in operation since the 1950s, the dredger meets today's modern standards, also very much in terms of sustainability. Since the start of the Markermeerdijken project, the engines have been fitted with so-called SCR installations with the aim of reducing nitrogen emissions to a minimum. This also contributes to the greening of this project and thus the entire sector."

"We look back on a successful project," Hemtra summarizes. "Partly due to the very good cooperation and coordination with the Alliance which allowed any problems or risks that arose to be quickly and maximally managed."