In Chongqing, China, a Damen Environmental Cutter Suction Dredger, type ECSD450 was commissioned. The dredger was built for Changjiang Chongqing Waterway Engineering Bureau for maintenance dredging on the Changjiang River.

The standard dredger was customized to adapt to local circumstances.

The dredger, called “Huan Bao 1 Hao”, will be stationed at Chongqing, China’s largest city. Here the Jialing River meets the Yangtze River – or Chang Jiang in Chinese. With some 6,500 kms it is China’s longest river, flowing from Tibet to Shanghai. Both rivers, together with surrounding smaller rivers and lakes, are maintained and kept at the right depth using the ECSD450 and other dredgers. Special attention is paid to low turbidity levels to make sure that there are no adverse effects on the water quality as the rivers are used for aquaculture and agriculture.

The ECSD450 has been built at the Damen Dredging yard, in Nijkerk, the Netherlands. After trials it was shipped to China, where it has recently been reassembled. Damen Field Service engineers have supervised extensive further testing. The dredger, a standard CSD450 dredging at – 12 m, has been fitted out with optionals such as an accommodation unit thus raising the control cabin, a mast with navigation lights, an environmental cutter head and a full dredging instrumentation package including density and flow measurement.

The “Huan Bao 1 Hao” will work in maintenance and water way construction, thus contributing to a further economic development of the Chongqing region. The Damen dredger is the result of the Package4Growth program of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, which helped the Changjiang Chongqing Waterway Engineering Bureau acquire the customized dredger.

Damen is proud that their ECSD450 will contribute to a further development of the region.