TSHD for South Africa
Wednesday 14 April saw the naming and launch ceremony of the 4,200m³ trailing suction hopper dredger Isandlwana at the IHC Merwede shipyard Verenigde Scheepswerf Heusden (VSH) in Heusden, the Netherlands. The dredger is built for Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA), based in South Africa. The construction of the ship will be completed at the IHC Merwede yard in Kinderdijk, the Netherlands.
The TSHD will perform maintenance dredging works in the ports of the Republic of South Africa. For this purpose a single suction pipe has been installed at starboard side, allowing for a dredging depth of 30 m. The dredged material can be dumped directly into the sea by discharging through ten conical bottom doors. The load can also be discharged through a self-emptying system, in which the dredged soil is pumped ashore through a floating pipeline, a fixed side connection or ‘rainbowed’, i.e. discharged through a spraying nozzle at the bow.