Alewijnse has successfully completed its comprehensive electrical installation works on two innovative MADs in the Marine Aggregate Dredger-class for Damen Shipyards Group.
The handover of the second of two Damen Shipyard’s Marine Aggregate Dredgers (MAD) 3500 class to its owner marks the completion of a three-year project.
The two vessels, ordered by CEMEX UK and Hanson UK respectively, are now operating from the south coast of England, dredging sand and aggregates in the English Channel for use in the UK construction sector. Together they mark a new generation of marine aggregate dredgers that deliver substantial advances in efficiency, productivity and sustainability.
Scope of works
The Alewijnse scope of the project comprised the engineering, delivery and commissioning of the vessels’ complete e-packages, including electrical panels, switchboards, cabling, and the alarm and monitoring system (AMS) and power management systems. Other activities included undertaking steel and general installation works and the installing of the electrical systems that drive the dredging equipment as well as those managing the general vessel operations.
Complex vessels
The builds took place at Damen Shipyards Galati, Romania. “We are pleased with the final results,” says Ionut Melescanu, Alewijnse’s project manager for the builds. “The projects were challenging, not least due to the disruption to working patterns caused by Covid. The engineering for the new class of vessels also evolved during the build due to their complexity, with various changes and updates having to be implemented on the first vessel. However, the second benefited as a result. This is the most complex type of vessel that Alewijnse Marine Galati has worked on so far at Damen Galati. We are very proud of what we have achieved and once again Alewijnse has demonstrated its ability to handle the most complex vessels afloat today, under the most challenging circumstances.”
Successful cooperation
Damen chose Alewijnse for the projects based on its strong track-record of supporting the Damen Shipyards Group with its specialist skills and its permanent presence at Damen’s Romanian Shipyards in Galati and Mangalia.
Alewijnse Project Manager Valentin Petrea commented: “Being a new design, I am very glad that we were involved right from the beginning in what was likely to be a challenging project. This enabled everyone involved tot work together to make it a success. We are glad that we were able to proveonce again that our experience and quality meet Damen’s high standards and hope that we can contribute to them winning more orders from this product range in the future.”
Experienced in electrical systems for dredgers
Alewijnse plays an important role in the automation and electrical installation in the new construction, conversion and renovation of all kinds of dredgers. Recently delivered projects include the succesful installation of Alewijnse’s innovative virtualisation and visualisation platform (AlViVi) on board seven trailing suction hopper dredgers (TSHDs) owned by DEME. Another recent project is the latest diamond mining vessel AMV3 from the fleet of De Beers Marine Namibia (Pty) Ltd. where Alewijnse successfully delivered the complete electrical installation.
Ongoing projects include the electrical refit of TSHD Swalinge from the fleet of Den Herder Seaworks and the electrical installation and automation work on board a second TSHD at Thecla Bodewes Shipyards.
