'We have the Aeolus, which can pump raw materials over a distance of 700 meters'

For five and a half years, she put her ships to work redeveloping the IJssel Delta from the water. "It was challenging, versatile and educational," she said.

Van der Meulen Woudsend deepened part of the IJssel's navigation channel and pumped the resulting sand into the North Well. Over a stretch of six kilometers, it performed excavation work on the IJssel and the Drontermeer. The company became involved in the IJssel Delta redevelopment because Boskalis was looking for a suitable vessel for the upcoming hydraulic engineering work. "That brought Boskalis to the Aeolus," says Gerrit Bruinsma, skipper/crane operator of Van der Meulen Woudsend.

The suitable crane ship

The Aeolus is a crane ship with a barge capacity of 690 tons, a hydraulic crane equipped with a dredging computer with GPS and a pumping system that can pump raw materials over long distances. The vessel can sail with only two crew members, a skipper and a sailor. "Boskalis themselves had a cutter suction dredger," says Bruinsma. "With this they performed the rough work to deepen the summer bed. We performed the hydraulic work with the Aeolus where the cutter suction dredger could not reach. For example, we removed cables and pipes."

Dredging with on-board computer

To prevent the suction dredger from stalling due to too large objects in the subsurface, the Aeolus was equipped with an on-board computer that provided a view of the subsurface. Bruinsma: "This allowed us to clear the way for the cutter suction dredger. Dredging with a computer was still new to us, but we mastered it surprisingly quickly. That also made this project instructive."

Special and attractive

"In addition, the project was wonderfully versatile," Bruinsma continued. "Really everything came along. We converted the North and South sand extraction pits into two lakes with a navigation channel and facilities for fish and nature. In several places we embellished embankments and, as a final job, we applied the underwater concrete at the Reeveen lock complex on the Drontermeer to protect the bottom. In a few cases we have used another vessel from our fleet for this, for example the Triton."