S Walsh & Sons order pusher tug from Concordia Damen
Damen Shipyards Group has signed a contract with London construction services provider S Walsh & Sons (‘Walsh’) for a CS2010 pusher tug from Concordia Damen, the company said in its release.
As a result of Concordia Damen’s practice of building stock hulls, the pusher will be available for quick delivery in summer this year. The CS 2010 will join the growing Walsh marine fleet operating on the River Thames in the UK – including the Damen Multi Cat 1908 delivered in 2019.
The new vessel will push barges on the river, transporting huge volumes of bulk freight in and out of London. On delivery it will go straight into action, playing a key role in moving more than a million tonnes of spoil and materials for London’s Tideway project – a major infrastructure scheme to build a 25km ‘supersewer’ under the Thames that will have a massive positive environmental impact on the river and its surrounds. The CS 2010 is a perfect fit for the task at hand.
Concordia Damen has designed the vessel for operations on inland waterways and it therefore connects naturally to inland shipping barges. Furthermore, as a solution for operations in busy waterways such as the Thames, the vessel features ‘azimuthing’ thrusters for high levels of manoeuvrability.
Further adding to safe operations, the CS 2010 wheelhouse is fitted to a column that can be raised or lowered as required. With this, visibility during pushing in unrivalled and the air draft can be lowered easily in order to pass bridges.
Damen sales manager Frederik van der Linde said, “I’m very happy that Damen can provide a solution to S Walsh & Sons that fits their needs. By working closely with Walsh and the team of Concordia Damen we now can look forward to seeing this pusher tug in operation on the Thames.”
Managing director for S Walsh & Sons Joe Gifford said, “This new pusher tug will be the latest addition to our expanding marine fleet on the River Thames. It will provide us with unmatched capability and versatility to meet the needs of complex infrastructure projects such as Tideway, with more capacity to shift large volumes of bulk materials in to and out of the capital by the most sustainable means possible.”
Damen Shipyards Group operates 36 shipbuilding and repair yards, employing 12,000 people worldwide. Damen has delivered more than 6,500 vessels in more than 100 countries and delivers around 175 vessels annually to customers worldwide. Based on its unique, standardised ship-design concept Damen is able to guarantee consistent quality. Damen’s focus on standardisation, modular construction and keeping vessels in stock leads to short delivery times, low ‘total cost of ownership’, high resale values and reliable performance. Furthermore, Damen vessels are based on thorough R&D and proven technology. Damen offers a wide range of products, including tugs, workboats, naval and patrol vessels, high speed craft, cargo vessels, dredgers, vessels for the offshore industry, ferries, pontoons and superyachts. For nearly all vessel types Damen offers a broad range of services, including maintenance, spare parts delivery, training and the transfer of (shipbuilding) know-how. Damen also offers a variety of marine components, such as nozzles, rudders, winches, anchors, anchor chains and steel works. Damen Shiprepair & Conversion (DSC) has a worldwide network of eighteen repair and conversion yards of which twelve are located in North West Europe. Facilities at the yards include more than 50 floating (and covered) drydocks, including the longest, 420 x 80 metres, and the widest, 405 x 90 metres, as well as slopes, ship lifts and indoor halls. Projects range from the smallest simple repairs through Class’ maintenance to complex refits and the complete conversion of large offshore structures. DSC completes around 1,300 repair and maintenance jobs annually, both at yards as well as in ports and during voyage.
S Walsh & Sons
S Walsh & Sons (Walsh) is the leading provider of river, road and rail freight solutions in London and has been involved in many of London’s major infrastructure schemes in recent decades. The company offers a complete materials handling service from excavation and waste removal to recovery and recycling. Walsh has operated its own versatile fleet of tugs and barges on the Thames since the 1990s and today runs the largest fleet of its kind in the UK. Each day the company moves up to 10,000 Tonnes of bulk cargo by river – equivalent to more than 400 lorries – and thousands of road miles. Walsh is part of the GRS Group, Britain’s number one partner for construction materials sourcing and supply, waste disposal and end-to-end logistics. With more than 50 locations nationwide GRS handles 20 million tonnes of materials each year, supporting many of the UK's major infrastructure schemes and leading builders merchants.
