Van Oord has developed a new technique for dredging at great water depths. This Deep Excavation System (DES) is an innovative method to prepare a sea bottom profile for installing offshore pipelines.
The system has been patented by Van Oord.
Uneven sea beds are traditionally prepared for laying offshore pipelines by installing large volumes of rock. As an alternative to this Subsea Rock Installation (SRI) method, Van Oord has applied the Deep Excavation System in Australia and Norway. On these projects, excavating several thousand cubic metres of hard and soft soil made the installation of hundreds of thousand tonnes of rock unnecessary. Combining the excavating system and SRI can be a cost-effective solution for sea bed preparation.
1000 Metres of Water Depth
The Deep Excavation System allows dredging to take place at depths varying from 100 to at least 1000 metres. Van Oord’s flexible fall pipe vessels Stornes and Bravenes (operational in 2016) can be equipped with this system, which has been developed in-house. It consists of the combined application of a sophisticated grab and a Fall Pipe Remotely Operated Vehicle (FPROV). The DES has a very accurate position control system and generates only very limited turbidity, which is vital in view of potential nearby sensitive marine environment like coral.
