Boskalis deepens in Russia

The world’s leading corporation in the sphere of construction of marine infrastructural objects – “Boskalis” – intends to strengthen its activity in Russia. At the present moment the most large-scale project of Boskalis is formation of new territories in the largest European port of Rotterdam. At the end of September the corporation representatives demonstrated these works to the management of the Russian Ministry of Transport putting an emphasis on  integrated innovative solution applied by Boskalis for construction of the new area of the Dutch port – “Maasvlakte 2”.

Three years ago port of Rotterdam started works on extension of the territory of the largest port of Europe. On the eve of the world economic crisis in summer of 2008 PUMA consortium (Projectorganisatie Uitbreiding Maasvlakte – the design organization on development of Maasvlakte) consisting of Boskalis and Van Oord commenced enlargement of the main sea gates of Holland.

A bit earlier, on the 27th of February, 2008 Rotterdam port authorities, Koninklijke Boskalis Westminster NV and Van Oord NV signed the contract for construction of the 1st stage of Maasvlakte 2. The contract amount exceeded €1 billion. Herewith the experts on this project declared that the overall estimate will ultimately reach €3 billion including construction of two terminals for receiving of natural gas.

According to foreign financial information agencies the consortium of Dutch banks consisting of Fortis (FORSY), Rabobank International and ING acted as the borrower of the funds for development of port of Rotterdam. They provided the funds in the amount of €450 million. Money will be mainly aimed at extension of Maasvlakte 2. BNG, Fortis, Rabobank and ING also provided some more €50 million as floating capital. And before commencement of construction works under the project on development of the port territory, European Investment Bank and Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten (BNG) announced of granting to the port the credit in the amount of €900 million and €450 million ($667 million) correspondingly.

Construction of the 1st stage of Maasvlakte 2 will be completed by the year 2013. The contract stipulates construction of coast defences, reclamation of more than 700 ha of the port area, construction of 2 km of sea berths up to 20 m deep, feed berthing line 1 long and 11 -13 m deep, dredging of the port aquatory and construction of 11 km of roads and railway lines. In accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract, the consortium will also maintain coast defenses of Maasvlakte 2 within first five years after the project completion.

Execution of the extensive project Maasvlakte 2 will make it possible to increase intake capacity of port of Rotterdam by more than 20%. In this territory among other things new container terminal Rotterdam World Gateway (RWG) will be constructed; agreement on which construction was signed between port of Rotterdam and five members of the consortium RWG (DP World, APL Ltd., Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. (MOL), Hyundai Merchant Marine Pte. Ltd. and CMA CGM Group). The container terminal with intake capacity around four million TEU per year will be connected with the railway project Betuwe. Total amount of investments  into the new terminal is equal to €900 million, the terminal will start its operation by stages starting from  2013.

In general, reportedly port of Rotterdam, the country government and some private companies invest into development of the port within the following five years in total €12 billion.

Especially for the delegation of the Ministry of Transport of Russia participated in work of the Russian-Dutch logistic forum (September 27-28th of 2011, Rotterdam), company Boskalis organized an excursion to the construction site of Maasvlakte 2. The following persons took part in it: Deputy Transport Minister of the Russian Federation – Viktor Olerskiy, Director of the State Policy Department in the sphere of marine and river transport of the Russian Ministry of Transport – Konstantin Palnikov, Director General of FSUE «Rosmorport» - Andrey  Lavrischev, Deputy Head of the Federal Marine and River Transport Agency (Rosmorrechflot) – Sergey Gorelik, the president of the Association of Shipping Companies (ASC) – Alexei Klyavin and the representatives of the largest port business – holding company UCLH operating the largest terminals of Saint Petersburg port and the terminal in Ust-Luga (the Leningrad region), National Container Company (NCC) being the leading Russian operator of marine container terminals, the group of companies «Russian Transport Lines» (RTL) receiving at their terminals the greatest in the whole Russia volume of ro/ro cargo.

As it was reported in the course of the presentation performed for the Russian guests, the corporation Boskalis (Royal Boskalis Westminster) firmly holds position of the leading  international supplier of the services in the sphere of dredging works, marine infrastructure and marine services. Boskalis provides innovative complex solutions all over the world for infrastructural projects in marine port, offshore areas and river estuaries, including construction and maintenance of ports and water ways, land reclamation in water and protection of the coastal area and river banks.

To extend port of Rotterdam Boskalis uses high-technology and alongside with that general-purpose equipment: extensive part of suction dredgers, large floating cranes and auxiliary equipment. With intent to solve the problem connected with carrying of big stone and concrete blocks the engineers of Boskalis elaborated and constructed a special crane – Blockbuster that is able to shift 40-t concrete block at a distance of up to 50 m.

Project Maasvlakte 2 stipulates construction of a breakwater in the from of pebble filling around 3,5 km long and a dam constructed of concrete blocks. Concrete blocks for construction of the dam are removed from the existing in port of Rotterdam coast protection structures not used in future and after this they are re-used upon formation of new territories. Such an innovative idea for formation of the objects of naval defense is used in the Netherlands for the first time. Previously boulders and pebble were used for construction of the objects of marine infrastructure in Great Britain and France.

Boskalis demonstrated the works on formation of new quay walls. For execution of Maasvlakte 2 project the company uses method of dry driving of a sheet pile to the already backfilled territory. Then soil excavation is being performed alongside the new quay wall constructed like this (dredging to the design depths). Such a method will not allow the constructed (uncompleted) hydrotechnical sturtcures to be destroyed by the wave action.

For more than 15 years Boskalis has been working on various projects on the territory of the Russian Federation. The company has positive experience as general contractor of the works, as well as a number of contracts completed in the framework of large-scale infrastructure projects and rescue operations.

In the process of implementation of Saint Petersburg Flood Protection Barrier (KZS) project Boskalis performed dredging of the new approach channel (about 7 500 000 m3), took part in construction of protective structures and the highway tunnel under the new approach channel. The «Nord Stream» international project (Nord Stream AG) is also implemented with participation of Boskalis specialists and equipment. The company was awarded contracts on preparation of the seabed for laying of two 1220-km gas pipelines and construction of shore approach in Germany, including dredging of 23-km trench, backfilling and pulling operations. The northern bulk-oil port Varandey (Russia) has also become one of the working projects of Boskalis in Russia. The company performed dredging works and backfilling of trenches for pipelines. Boskalis participates in soil improvement works for construction of port structures in Sochi.   

Since the middle of the last year Boskalis has been realizing a 10-year contract with the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC, Novorossiysk). The «Lamnalko» company – an affiliate of Boskalis - provides a set of services for the terminal, securing the functioning of two single-point moorings (including a team of divers permanently working on site).

The company operates on Sakhalin – in the port of De-Kastri and on «Sakhalin II» project. There the company provides two ice-breakers reequipped to internal response vessels used in case of oil spills, a salvage vessel on a long-term charter terms and an icebreaking transport and tug vessel «Talagi» on a seasonal charter terms.

In the northwest of Russia Boskalis took part in dredging projects on creation of aquatic area of the «Moby Dick» container terminal (Kronshtadt Island, the Big Port of Saint Petersburg), the bulk-oil terminal «LUKOIL-II» of the Vysotsk transshipment complex and the Vysotsk coal port (the Gulf of Finland, the Leningrad Region).