Successful launch of Ursa dredger

On Tuesday, 19 September, another specialist vessel was launched, which will join the fleet of the Maritime Office in Gdynia. The dredger is dedicated to the new, more than 20-kilometre-long waterway connecting the Vistula Lagoon with the Gulf of Gdansk and is being built as part of the multi-year programme under which the entire investment is being implemented. It will also operate and maintain approach fairways to seaports.

The maritime administration will soon have a modern, specialised vessel that will make it much easier to maintain the assumed parameters of the fairways leading to the ports. The introduction of an in-house dredger will allow savings to be made in dredging works and will also speed up their execution, especially where urgent dredging is required,” said Marek Gróbarczyk, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure.

A very important stage of this project has been completed; the vessel can already float on its own and from now on we can call it a ship. The construction contract was signed in March 2022. It provides for the dredger’s design, construction, equipment and delivery. The value of the contract is PLN 116.5 million.

The keel-laying ceremony took place at the end of October 2022, and less than a year later the dredger, for which we chose the name URSA, was launched. Work is currently more than 70 per cent advanced. The vessel should operationally join our fleet by the end of the first quarter of 2024,” said Wieslaw Piotrzkowski, director of the Maritime Office in Gdynia.

The Finnish shipyard Tyovene Oy is building the vessel and cooperating with companies from the Netherlands on this project.

The contract also includes the delivery of the refuelling pipeline system. The delivery of this equipment will take place together with transport containers and an end anchoring system intended to be connected to the dredge discharge system.

A dredger like Ursa cannot be ordered as a finished product from an online catalogue. It is a vessel designed and built for a specific customer to a detailed specification, highly personalised, one-of-a-kind, meeting the customer’s exacting requirements and all applicable regulations. URSA is unique! – said Juha Granqvist, managing director of Tyovene OY.

Parameters of the ordered unit:

Approximate overall length (excluding bow connection) 62.00m
Maximum moulded breadth 12.0m
Maximum moulded draught 3.9m
Hold volume at highest overflow level greater than 950 m³
Maximum dredging depth below the waterline is 18m
Minimum marching speed in cargo draught condition: 8 knots

The construction of the new waterway through the Vistula Spit is proceeding in stages. On 17 September last year, the Vistula Spit saw the opening of the Navigation Channel along with the associated infrastructure and an island in the Vistula Lagoon.

The second stage, namely the Elbląg riverbank enclosure, is currently more than 90 per cent advanced, with the rotary bridge in Nowakowo, commissioned at the beginning of July this year, being an important element.

All work under this part of the project will be completed by the end of 2023. The third stage, dredging the fairway on the Vistula Lagoon and the construction of navigation markings, was completed in May this year.

Source: PortalMorski.pl