The PoMC said it now expected the major dredging works in Port Phillip Bay to be completed on August 31, 2009 – four months ahead of schedule. The trailing suction hopper dredge (TSHD) Prins der Nederlanden will arrive in Melbourne in February to commence major dredging work in the south of the bay.The Prins, owned by the project’s international dredging alliance partner, Royal Boskalis Westminster, will be involved primarily with dredging clean sand in South Channel, where a significant proportion of the project’s remaining dredging work is to occur.The Prins is 156m long and has a hold capacity of 16,000 cubic metres smaller than the project’s main TSHD, Queen of the Netherlands, which is now in Singapore to have its 173m hull lengthened by about 50m. The work is scheduled for completion in March.The project’s other main dredge vessel, Cornelis Zanen, returned from Singapore on December 15 following routine maintenance and has resumed dredging in the northern part of the bay.PoMC chief executive Stephen Bradford the project is now 50% completed, in advance of the original schedule and under budget.The dredging of smaller river and berth pockets to be carried out by the smaller dredging vessels Goomai and Storken and service protection works are still scheduled for completion by the end of next year.
