Van Oord: Second Sand Motor successfully completed

Van Oord says that working as part of Team Van Oord it has successfully completed the Bacton to Walcott Coastal Management (Sandscaping) Scheme. During the festive ceremony, the project was handed over to client North Norfolk District Council (NNDC).

Bacton to Walcott Coastal Management Scheme is the UK’s first ever sandscaping coastal flood scheme. The project is being carried out by Van Oord and Royal Haskoning DHV, working on behalf of NNDC.

Councillor Sarah Bütikofer, North Norfolk District Council comments: "It’s incredibly exciting to see this project come to fruition. Protecting local homes, communities, businesses and nationally important infrastructure from the full force of the North Sea, this innovative Scheme, and a prime example of engineering with nature, has been designed to address the real threat of coastal erosion and its devastating impact which here in North Norfolk we are all too familiar with."

In front of the existing gas terminal and between the villages of Bacton and Walcott, Van Oord’s trailing suction hopper dredger HAM 318 deposited 1.8 million cubic metres of sand over a total length of 6 kilometres to protect the stretch of coastline from erosion. Much of the placed sand serves to protect the huge, strategically important gas terminal. The extra sand that Van Oord placed will be carried by the current along the Norfolk coast and end up on the coastline further south by natural processes. The project, designed by Royal Haskoning DHV, is an export product based on the Dutch Sand Motor.

The project milestones included the decommissioning of existing outfalls and installing a new outfall. Van Oord’s subsidiary Mackley took charge of work related to the pipeline connections towards the new outfall on the existing beach.