Dredging back to full capacity soon
FULL operations using Port Otago’s relatively new backhoe dredge Takutai and its two barges TR Healy and Hapuka should begin soon.
The $1.5 million, 40.2mlong split hopper barge TR Healy was undergoing repair on the Kitchener St slipway for about another week, Port Otago’s manager of marine and infrastructure Sean Bolt said.
He said one of two locking rams, which kept two hulls closed together after they had emptied their silt loads, was being repaired.
Once the repair was completed, Mr Bolt expected both TR Healy and $1.4 million barge Hapuka would be fully used in tandem with the backhoe dredge; one being filled while the other was making the fivehour round trip to dump spoil.
He has in the past estimated the trio had the capacity to move between 180,000cu m and 200,000cu m of spoil per year. Much of the initial workload will come from upper harbour operations.