Bottomless prospects
Expansion of dredging works performed by Rosmorport using its own resources, need for legislative improvements and construction of specialized fleet in Russia, introduction of innovations are among the key issues discussed at the 2nd Hydraulic Engineering Structures and Dredging Congress.
There is always room for improvement
Regulatory framework for dredging in Russia has been developed in general and is functioning successfully, Nadezhda Zhikhareva, Deputy Head of Rosmorrechflot, said at the Congress.
Nevertheless, legislative improvements are required in some areas mostly due to the launching of new projects, particularly Arctic ones as we wrote earlier >>>>
Among them Nadezhda Zhikhareva distinguished amendments to the Rules for Management of Dredged Material approved by the Government in 2015 that would let use and store the material extracted during dredging.
Other initiatives aim at improving rulemaking related to both dredging and construction of seaports in general. Amendments to the Urban Development Code, the Federal Law on Seaports, the Technical Regulations on Security of Sea Transport Facilities, the Water Code. Read more >>>>
The Congress participants also outlined some other regulatory problems.
Andrey Lavrishchev, General Director of FSUE Rosmorport addressed the problems related to the use of dumping sites and to compensation for bioresource damage.
Victor Chebotayev, Advisor to General Director of FSUE Natsrybresurs, said it would be necessary to create a single window system for dredging operations as well as a system of state environmental monitoring of bottom sediments and dumping areas. Organizations subordinate to the Ministry of Nature could be charged with this task, he believes.
Sergey Koskin, Deputy Director, Department of State Policy for Regulation of Water Resources, RF Ministry of Nature, reminded that the Ministry has a working group on elimination of administrative barriers which welcomes such proposals.
Andrey Kozlov, Deputy Director, Department of State Policy for Maritime and River Transport of the Russian Ministry of Transport also emphasized the necessity to improve legislation on construction of hydraulic engineering structures.
Read more about regulations in the sphere of dredging in a new edition of the Hydrotechnika magazine >>>>
Not only for Russia
According to Andrey Lavrishchev, General Director of FSUE Rosmorport, the plan for 2019 provides for dredging 12.1 million cbm this year. He said the scope of repair dredging is to make 10.4 million cbm, dredging under new construction projects – 1.7 million cbm. The amount of material to be dredged by the company’s own facilities is estimated at 8.4 million cbm.
Rosmorport will perform dredging under the projects on development of Kaliningrad, Gelendgik, Vanino and Kholmsk ports.
As Vasily Strugov, Deputy General Director of Rosmorport, said at the Congress, FSUE Rosmorport is going to order four dredgers by 2030. Among them will be a non-self-propelled cutter-suction dredger and three trailing suction hopper dredgers with hopper capacity of 1,000 cbm.
Currently, Onezhsky Shipbuilding, Ship Repair Yard (Onega Shipyard) is building the following vessels for FSUE Rosmorport: 2,000 cbm dredger named Yury Maslov, two non-self-propelled hopper barges of 600 cbm each and a self-propelled hopper barge of 900 cbm in capacity which is to used in a pilot project on unmanned navigation. The vessel named Rabochaya will be used for operational testing of unmanned navigation equipment as part of R&D project “Development of a unified technological platform for unmanned operation of commercial and technological seagoing vessels” supervised by RF Ministry of Industry and Trade. The work is being performed together with the MariNet Working Group of the National Technological Initiative and Kronshtadt Group which will develop documentation for equipment installation. This project is also supposed to involve shipping companies Sovcomflot and Pola Rise.
Other innovative projects in the field of dredging equipment were described by M. Chemodanov, Technical Director of Nonius Engineering LLC. The company has developed an environmentally friendly nonisotopic densimeter based on hydroacoustics principles. It is also developing an underwater imaging system for dredgers. The works are financed by the Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises in Science and Technology.
One more national manufacturer of specialized equipment is Composit focused on research, development and production of wear-resistant rubber hoses for dredging, mining, extraction and processing industries. According to Mikhail Lunev, Head of the company’s Sales Department, Composit offers a wide range of hoses and other products for dredging operations.
Nikolai Shablikov, Deputy Head of the Department of Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, RF Ministry of Industry and Trade, told about state support measures expected to facilitate the development of facilities able to build specialized vessels. According to him, the Ministry is currently developing amendments into the Order of RF Government No 719 “On confirming Russian origin of industrial goods” and a supplement document, “Specifications of industrial products to be rated as goods manufactured in the Russian Federation” in order to develop criteria to confirm the Russian origin of ships.
Besides, the Ministry is looking into providing subsidies to Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex in the Primorsky Territory which is supposed to build a significant number of Arctic ships. Besides, a package of state support measures is being applied in Russia in the segment of shipbuilding. It includes subsidies to cover loan and leasing interest rates as well as ship utilization grants.
Apart from domestic companies, the market of specialized ships is interesting for the global leaders. Vadim Akimov, Sales Director of Damen (the Netherlands) says the company is currently supervising the construction of a 2,000 cbm dredger of Damen design which is to be delivered by Onezhsky Shipbuilding, Ship Repair Yard (Onega Shipyard) in the first quarter of 2020.
National projects should take into consideration the practices of the global industry leaders. Wang Xiaopan, Dredging Market Development Manager, CCCC Dredging Group, told the Congress participants about the company experience gained during the dredging projects implemented in the largest ports worldwide. The company’s fleet numbers 103 dredgers and 100 other vessels. Its dredging capacity is 800,000 cbm per year.
Dr.Phil. Moosbrugger Aleksander Kasper Jacob, Dredging Director, Liebherr-Werk Nenzing GmbH, in his turn, shared the experience in production of equipment for grab dredging.
Generally speaking, Russia continues implementation of ambitious projects requiring large-scale dredging. The development of domestic equipment and ships production is underway with advanced development of innovations. Yet, there are several problems to be addressed in this respect.
Vitaly Chernov
