The Da Nang Management Board of Traffic Construction Investment Projects said on Wednesday that it had directed the Phu Xuan Consultation and Construction JSC to carry out the pilot dredging of Area No.1 on the eastern side of the Tho Quang Fishing Wharf - a section of water from the wharf towards Chu Huy Man Street.

The anchorage of many out-of-city fishing boats at the pilot dredging area impacts the dredging progress

As noted by our reporter at the dredging site on the afternoon of April 12, the company just assigned a barge and a grab dredgers for dredging in tight space because many out-of-city fishing boats were anchored in the construction area.

A grab dredger collected 2-3m³ of dredged material per bucket. The machine made about 250 buckets to fill up a barge with storage compartments with a capacity of more than 600m³.

Each position at the bottom of the wharf was excavated to a depth of about 2m to collect the upper mud layer with a thickness of about 0.5-0.7m, followed by layers of mud mixed with clay, clay and clay mixed with sand with a thickness of 1.3-1.5m.

After the barge was filled with dredged material, it was controlled to bypass fishing vessels and exit the wharf with a total time of more than 40 minutes and move to the specified dumping area at latitude 16°11'25.10"N and longitude 108°17'32.78"E on the evening of April 12 outside the Da Nang Bay, more than 12km east of buoy No. 0.

The discharge outlets at the bottom of the barge were opened to discharge the dredged material into the sea at a depth of 29-30m and there were almost no currents at sea. This was a favourable condition to quickly settle the dredged material with mostly clay and sandy clay to the seabed.

Mr. Tran Duc Sang, a representative of the Phu Xuan Consultation and Construction JSC, informed that the company had mobilised 4 barges and 2 grab dredgers to the Tho Quang Fishing Wharf for dredging and submerging dredged material at sea.

However, because the pilot dredging area still had many out-of-city fishing boats anchored so the construction site was very narrow. Therefore, the company only used a barge and a grab dredger for the pilot dredging work.

"We hope the municipal authorities will coordinate with fishermen to move fishing boats out of the construction area so that we complete our work as soon as possible. We are determined to complete the dredging of the wharf before this year’s stormy season in order to increase the wharf’s capacity of fishing boats and resolve the environmental pollution here" said Mr. Sang.

The dredged material is being loaded onto a barge having discharge outlets at its bottom in order to be submerged at sea at the specified location.

Most of the dredged material are clay and clay mixed with sand, so it is easy for them to be settle to the seabed at depth of 29-30m at the subduction zone.

A cluster of barges and grab dredgers has not been operated because of construction ground problems.

It took more than 40 minutes for the barge carrying the dredging material to move out of the Tho Quang Fishing Wharf.

On Tuesday evening, the barge carrying dredged material was seen moving to the specified position to submerge the dredged material (Screenshot of the barge's cruise monitoring device).

The dredged material collected from the Tho Quang Fishing Wharf is being submerged at the specified location on Tuesday evening.

Reporting by HOANG HIEP - Translating by M.DUNG