The dredging operations have a central role to play in the implementation of the Hamburg dredged material

management concept: Some three to four million cubic metres of sediment and up to half a million cubic
metres of sand have to be dredged out of the harbour and River Elbe every year in order to safeguard the
fairway depth for shipping and to maintain the operability of Hamburg Harbour. For that reason, an
operating system specially tailored for Hamburg Harbour has been developed over time and these have
been constantly adapted to the technical, economic and (for more than two decades) to the environmental
requirements of Hamburg Harbour.

Dredging as a tradition

Port and River Engineering have a dredging tradition in Hamburg that goes
back far into the Middle Ages. Even the current river course of the region
where the river splits between the Norderelbe and the Süderelbe can be
traced back to human activity. With the increased size of ships in the first
half of the 19th century there was also an increase in the requirements on
adequate and safe fairway depths.

The first steam dredger was used in 1834 and at the start of the 20th century a water depth of 10 metres was
achieved in the fairway and the harbour. Today, gigantic container ships having draughts of up to 13.80
metres can be accepted by Hamburg Harbour.

Employment in double shifts

Some of the dredging work in the harbour is carried out with our own equipment. About 90 employees work in
shifts on the bucket ladder dredgers and grab dredgers, transport barges, tug boats and suction pumps of
the Department of Port and River Engineering. Dredging work that must be carried out by trailing suction
hopper dredgers or with water injection devices is contracted out as required to private companies.

When the employees of the dredging operation of the Department of Port and River Engineering start their work
at 06:00 hours in the morning they already have 16 hours on board behind them. This is because for
economic use of the capital-intensive dredging equipment a double shift work system is operated. The shift
 starts at 14:00 hours and finishes at 22:00 hours. These same employees then sleep on board and work
the next day once again from 06:00 hours to 14:00 hours. This reduces the transport of the two necessary
crews on the waterway to a minimum and at the same time ensures economical monitoring of the
equipment. Dredging work is carried out from Monday to Friday, from 06:00 hours to 22:00 hours, i.e. for 80
hours per week.

Everything under control

Before dredging, accurate and current maps of the sediment deposits on the river bed must be drawn up. The
necessary data is obtained by echo-sounding using four special ships.

All the dredging work now carried out in Hamburg Harbour uses electronic data processing. The information
about the dredging work and transport of dredged material is recorded and evaluated by computer. This
enables the operations and use of equipment to be accurately controlled, so increasing the efficiency of the
dredging work.

The dredger fleet

Grab dredgers
For small-scale dredging work in narrow parts of the harbour or in the vicinity of
quay walls grab dredgers are employed. The cable dredger Fafner is
mounted on a floating platform and is kept in position via four anchoring
cables and winches.

Bucket ladder dredgers ->enlargement

The two large bucket ladder dredgers Odin and Heimdall carry out the heavy
dredging work. Their dredging buckets, on an endless chain, take up the
dredged material from the river bed, transport it over the upper chain
swivel point and tip it out.

From there it is transported via chutes into the transport barges moored
alongside the dredger. The bucket ladder can be raised and dropped so
that dredging can be carried out down to the required depth.

A bucket ladder dredger is moved by six anchor cables, that allow the working
->enlargement
motion to be accurately controlled sideways and forwards using winches.
The dredging work hence results in a level river bed.

Even after interruptions to the work – for example to allow ships to pass – the previous working position can be
accurately located again.
 Transport barges

Barges are used for transporting the dredged material. The Department of Port
and River Engineering has own transport barges with a capacity from 200
to 522 cubic metres. They are equipped with electronic data measurement
systems that indicate and display the current weight of the load.
->enlargement
The transport operations also has two split hull barges that can dispose of the
dredged material in the river by opening their split hulls. For transport by
barge four ice-breakers Dalmann, Hübbe, Hofe and Lentz are used. Other
tug boats can be hired in depending on requirements.

Suction station
To unload the dredged material from the barges and for further transport to the
dredged material treatment installation METHA, the Department of Port
and River Engineering operates a floating suction station.

Depending on its composition, up to four times the volume of water is added to

the dredged material in order to allow it to be pumped. The so formed
water / dredged material mixture is sucked out of the barge by the pump ->enlargement

of the suction station and forced via an approximately 900 metre long pipe
to its destination. In order to reduce the amount of wastewater that has to
be treated the wastewater is recycled and fed back to the pipe system of
the suction station.

Trailing suction hopper dredgers or hopper dredgers

Initially, companies contracted to undertake hopper dredging works only carried
out sand dredging works in the River Elbe, to maintain safe depths of
water in the fairway. However for the past few years hopper dredgers
specially equipped for dredging silt sediment have also been employed
wherever there has been adequate manoeuvring room. These trailing
suction hopper dredgers suck dredged material from the river bed via
pipes into hoppers that have a volume of approximately 2000 to 3000
->enlargement
cubic metres. They then transport their loads to the relevant destination.

For open river disposal of the dredged material the hopper contents can be emptied into the river via bottom
dump doors. If the dredged material has to be treated at the dewatering fields in Moorburg the hopper
dredger is connected to a flushing pipe and the load is pumped directly there using on-board pumps. In this
case little water has to be added.

For controlling the operations and quality of the hopper dredging work in Hamburg a special remote monitoring
system has been developed that records all information electronically, passes on the data by radio and
evaluates the data. Manpower intensive and cost intensive on-board monitoring is thus avoided.
Water injection dredging device
Since 1987 companies have been contracted to use water injection dredging
devices to relocate sediments. In water injection dredging a pipe is placed
on the bottom transverse to the direction of travel. By means of a series of
nozzles positioned close to each other, large amounts of water are
injected into the deposits on the river bed. This produces a sediment-
water mixture that is heavier and more dense than the River Elbe water
and hence flows into deeper regions of water.

Water injection dredging is predominantly used in the western part of the

->enlargement
harbour, at the mouth of the River Este as well as for levelling ripples in
the River Elbe. It is also used for levelling the river bed after hopper
dredgers have been in operation and for levelling and local redistribution
of specific shallow regions. Each year about 200,000 cubic metres of silt
and sand deposits are relocated in this way.

Why dredge?
Like any other river, the River Elbe contains large amounts of suspended matter. At places where the strength of
the current decreases this matter sinks as sediment (bottom deposits) to the river bed. This is the case in
Hamburg Harbour.

In addition the River Elbe at Hamburg is influenced by the North Sea tides. At
high tide even more suspended matter comes into the harbour, and this
naturally results in siltation.

How much dredging work must be carried out?

Seafarers all over the world like to have six inches of water below the keel at all
times. A safe depth of water is thus necessary for all ships arriving at
Hamburg. Some three to four million cubic metres of sediment must be
dredged out of the shipping lanes in Hamburg harbour. In addition about half
a million cubic metres of sand must be dredged from the River Elbe.