Boskalis Clinches Port of Helsinki Dredging Deal

Dutch marine services and dredging contractor Boskalis has secured 32 million euros ($35 million) worth of dredging works in Finland's Port of Helsinki.

Under the contracts awarded by the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, the Port of Helsinki, and the City of Helsinki, Boskalis will deepen de Vuosaari fairway and harbor basin from eleven to thirteen meters in the Port of Helsinki.

The Dutch company will then use and utilize a part of the dredged material for the development of Helsinki’s Hernesaari area, which is close to the center of the city. The activities will start immediately and are due to be completed by the end of 2021.

‎For the harbor deepening scope a volume of one million cubic meters of clay and moraine material will be dredged and 0.8 million cubic meters of rock will be removed from the seabed by means of drilling and blasting. 

Part of this material will be transported by vessel to the Hernesaari area and reused for the reclamation of 6 hectares of land on which offices and residential housing for 7,000 people will be developed in the coming years. For these activities Boskalis will deploy a variety of specialized dredging equipment including two large backhoe dredgers, a grab dredger, a drilling barge and various hopper barges, the company said.

"Boskalis’ strategy is aimed at benefitting from key macro-economic factors which drive worldwide demand in our markets: expansion of the global economy, increase in energy consumption, global population growth and the challenges that go hand in hand with climate change. These projects are largely driven by growth in global trade and the trend towards larger vessels with deeper drafts as well as population growth in major cities," Boskalis said.