From the magazine – Romania’s coastal defence programme marks a turning point for dredging, positioning it as a core tool in climate resilience. Led by leading international contractor Van Oord, the project aims to protect vulnerable shorelines.
Article by Andrew Ekwueme, Intent Communications, supplied to SWZ|Maritime by CEDA, ceda@dredging.org. This article also appeared in SWZ|Maritime’s July/August 2025 issue.
Rising sea levels and decades of sediment loss are reshaping coastlines across Europe. On Romania’s western Black Sea shore, the effects of erosion have become increasingly visible, placing pressure on both infrastructure and ecosystems. In response, a long-term, EU-funded coastal protection programme is being delivered, with international contractor Van Oord leading one of its largest phases.
The project spans Romania’s coastline and combines hard coastal structures, beach nourishment, and ecological measures. Work includes the construction of breakwaters, artificial reefs and environmental interventions such as seagrass relocation and sediment monitoring.
‘This is not only a coastal protection project, it’s an adaptation project,’ says Ioana Balu, project engineer at Van Oord. ‘The scale of the intervention and the diversity of conditions along the shoreline require a multi-faceted approach.’
Van Oord’s involvement in Romania’s coastal protection efforts began during Phase I of the national programme in 2011. Phases III and IV of the Constanța County Coastal Erosion Protection Project followed, with the design process starting in August 2022. The contract was signed in late 2022, and construction began in autumn 2023. These phases form part of the broader Phase II of Romania’s coastal defence programme, which has a total budget of € 841 million. Of this, € 602.7 million is provided by the EU Cohesion Fund, and € 97 million is covered by the European Investment Bank, with the remainder covered by national sources.
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A shift in how dredging is being deployed
Work continues through 2025, with active construction across eleven shoreline sections. Across all sites in Phase II, around 20 million m3 of sand is expected to be dredged, of which approximately 4 million m3 has been handled by Van Oord’s Vox Amalia. Design and engineering, environmental habitat creation, compensation and stakeholder coordination work in parallel, underlining a broader shift in how dredging is being deployed.
As Pieter Van der Klis, Van Oord’s design and engineering manager, noted in an interview with CEDA Industry News: ‘The perception of dredging is changing. It is no longer just about transporting sand, but dredging has become part of a long-term coastal adaptation management strategy.’
Van Oord’s latest contract awards in Costinești, Mangalia-Saturn, and 2 Mai seaside resort areas along Romania’s southern Black Sea coast mark a new phase in the country’s coastal defence strategy, with a combined value of approximately € 200 million. These projects, though separate from the earlier € 841 million Phase II works, extend the country’s investment in shoreline resilience. Together, Romania’s modern coastal protection efforts now total more than € 1 billion, highlighting the critical role dredging plays in long-term climate adaptation across the region.
Adapting to a fragmented coastline
The Romanian coastal protection programme is not a single continuous stretch of work, but a collection of eleven separate shoreline sections, each with its own exposure, sediment profile, and infrastructure pressures. For Van Oord, this required a design strategy that could respond to varied site conditions while still aligning with national adaptation goals.
‘The biggest challenge was the fragmentation of the project area,’ says Balu, referring to the logistical and design implications of working across multiple non-contiguous sites. ‘Each section has different parameters and therefore requires tailored technical solutions.’
Design work included physical modelling and numerical simulations to optimise combinations of hard coastal structures, such as breakwaters and groynes, with soft engineering interventions like beach nourishment. Where possible, sediment transport pathways were restored or mimicked, reinforcing the long-term viability of each section.
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Building with nature
Van der Klis notes that the design team took a “building with nature” approach, which in this case included soft engineering measures, such as beach nourishment and preserving sediment transport dynamics, informed by prior experience in earlier phases of the Romanian coastal works. This included collaboration with environmental specialists, landscape architects, and local authorities to ensure the structures integrated into both the physical and ecological landscape.
One critical design principle was flexibility. With sea level rise projections evolving, Van Oord designed structures allowing for the possibility of future reinforcement or extension. For beach nourishment areas, adaptive management was built into the design, allowing for adjustments in replenishment volumes or placement techniques depending on monitoring outcomes.
Delivering dredging at scale
Dredging multiple coastal sites, each with distinct depth, sediment types, and environmental sensitivities, required a flexible and phased approach. Van Oord mobilised a range of trailing suction hopper dredgers (TSHDs), including the Vox Amalia, to carry out reclamation and beach nourishment using material sourced from a designated offshore borrow area.
The Vox Amalia, one of Van Oord’s newer mid-size TSHDs, is equipped with state-of-the-art dredge control systems and has a hopper capacity of around 16,800 m3. The Vox Amalia’s ability to dredge in both shallow (as little as 4.5 metres) and deeper waters (up to 30 metres) gave Van Oord the flexibility to tackle Romania’s highly varied coastal zones.
By the end of 2023, more than 20 million m3 of sand had been placed, with works continuing through 2024. ‘Dredging operations had to be scheduled to account for weather, nearshore wave conditions, and the availability of equipment across sites,’ says Balu. ‘Coordination was essential to maintain progress while managing environmental windows.’
The borrow area was carefully selected to minimise ecological impact and ensure sediment compatibility with the receiving shoreline. Dredged material was placed with high precision, using realtime monitoring and survey support to meet design tolerances and minimise turbidity.
Each site presented different operational conditions, requiring adjustments in the dredging method and sequencing. For nearshore works, beach profiling and integration with newly constructed groynes or breakwaters added further complexity.
The project’s scale and long coastline also posed logistical demands beyond dredging. Land-based access constraints, coordination between marine and onshore crews, alongside overlapping timelines across multiple contractors, required continuous planning.
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Environmental and stakeholder integration
Environmental considerations have been embedded throughout the Romanian coastal protection project, not only as a compliance requirement but as a core component of the design and delivery process. Several of the project sites fall within or are adjacent to an EU-wide network of ecological sites designated to preserve biodiversity known as Natura 2000 protected areas. These require close coordination with regulators and specialists to manage ecological impacts.
As a result, mitigation measures included real-time turbidity monitoring, seagrass relocation, and the design of artificial reefs to support habitat restoration. According to Balu, these efforts were not separate from construction, but integrated into the project plan: ‘The environmental requirements were aligned from the start. We worked closely with consultants and ecologists to ensure we could deliver on technical goals without compromising environmental values.’
This approach extended to stakeholder management. With national agencies, contractors, consultants, and local authorities involved across multiple sites, maintaining alignment was essential. Van der Klis notes the importance of long-term team continuity: ‘The experience built up in previous phases allowed for smoother decision-making and a common understanding between parties. That made a big difference when managing changing site conditions or adapting to weather constraints.’
Adaptive permitting process
Meanwhile, the permitting process was adaptive by design. Authorities provided frameworks that allowed certain environmental decisions, such as sediment placement adjustments or reef positioning, to be refined through field data. This flexibility allowed the project team to respond to emerging conditions without compromising overall timelines.
Beyond compliance, the programme has helped establish new collaborative practices between contractors, environmental specialists, and public agencies, offering a model for large-scale climate adaptation efforts elsewhere.
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Dredging as part of coastal adaptation strategy
As the Romanian coastal protection programme moves forward, it offers a clear example of how dredging is evolving within the broader context of climate adaptation. What was once primarily a technical discipline, now operates at the intersection of engineering, environmental planning, and public policy.
Van Oord’s work across eleven distinct sites demonstrates how coastal resilience efforts increasingly depend on integrated planning, where design, execution, and ecological management are developed in parallel. The ability to work across fragmented geographies, manage environmental sensitivities, and maintain coordination between multiple stakeholders has been central to the project’s progress.
While the challenges of scale, logistics, and regulation remain, this project shows how dredging can serve not only as a delivery mechanism, but as part of the strategic thinking behind coastal adaptation.
About CEDA
The Central Dredging Association (CEDA) is an internationally recognised independent professional association. It is an easy-to-access leading platform for the exchange of knowledge and an authoritative reference point for impartial technical information. CEDA actively strives to contribute towards sustainable development by strongly recommending working with nature.
CEDA members are corporations, professionals and stakeholders, involved in a diversity of activities related to dredging, marine construction and dredged sediment management. CEDA represents the common interest of all fields related to dredging and does not promote the interest of any particular industry sector or organisation.
Picture (top): The project spans Romania’s coastline and combines hard coastal structures, beach nourishment, and ecological measures (photo supplied by CEDA).
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