Ukraine has completed dredging of the mouth of the Bystroe River Danube, bringing the draught of vessels at the section from the 0th kilometer of the mouth of the Bystroe River to the 77th kilometer of the Kiliya mouth to 6.5 meters, the Ministry of Restoration said on Friday.
According to its release, the section from the 77th kilometer to the 116th kilometer of the Kili estuary has a passing draft of 7 meters, whereas at the beginning of the full-scale intrusion, the maximum draft was only 3.9 meters.
“This is the first time we have been able to increase the allowable draught of vessels under independent Ukraine. Thanks to this we will be able to provide more efficient and safe navigation between the Black Sea and the Danube River, as well as increase the cargo flow through the Danube ports,” the report quotes Deputy Prime Minister – Head of the Ministry of Reconstruction Alexander Kubrakov as saying.
He added that since March 2022, transshipment of cargo in the ports of Izmail, Reni and Ust-Dunaisk has increased by three times. In general, more than 17 million tons of products, including more than 11 million tons of food products were exported from them.
According to the department, an increase in the draft for the passage of ships through the mouth of the “Bystroe” to the specified level became possible thanks to the elimination of the consequences of drift, the removal of sediment from the soil, the elimination of rollovers and the restoration of passport characteristics within the water areas of sea ports of Ukraine.
As reported, the passage of ships through the mouth of the “Bystroe” was opened on July 9, 2022 after the liberation of the Snake Island from the occupants.
The total volume of operational dredging performed by technical fleet of Delta-Pilot branch of state-owned enterprise (SOE) Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority exceeded 500,000 cubic meters from the beginning of 2020, which is more than 30% of the annual plan, the press service of the Sea Ports Authority said on Monday, April 27.
The authority said that there was a scheduled repair of most of the branch’s technical fleet vessels in 2019. Three Rion dredging convoys were docked, while Inhulsky and Meotida dredging pumps were classified. It limited the dredging volume at the level of 824,700 cubic meters for 2019, but made it possible to establish plans for operational dredging by the own fleet at 1.6 million cubic meters for 2020.
In 2020, dredging was provided on the Buzko-Dniprovsko-Lymansky sea canal, Kherson sea canal, the sea access channel of the Danube-Black Sea deep water canal, the access channels of ports of Mariupol and Berdiansk and on the access channel of Dnistrovsko-Tsarehradsky.
Operational dredging is planned by technical fleet of Delta-Pilot branch in water areas and on the sea access channels of the ports of Odesa, Pivdenny, Mariupol, as well as on Kherson sea canal and on the sea access channel of the Danube-Black Sea deep water canal by the end of 2020.
The dredging fleet of Delta-Pilot branch of the of SOE Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority consists of three dredging pumps (Inhulsky, Meotida, Tylihulsky), as well as a dredging convoy as part of multi-bucket dredger Rion, two sludge vessels (Krymska-3, Krymska-9), and a MZ-318 multicat (an anchor handling vessel).
The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority has completed work on operational dredging in Mykolaiv seaport.
According to the agency’s press service, the total amount of work exceeded 890,000 cubic meters. The implementation of the project allowed bringing the depths on the approach channel of Mykolaiv port to 11.2 meters, and in the water area of Dnipro-Buzsky port to 11.5 meters.
“Restoring passport depths allows private and state-owned stevedoring companies to fully utilize the technical capabilities of port infrastructure, reduces the cost of marine logistics and makes products of Ukrainian manufacturers more competitive in the world market,” the press service said citing Head of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority RaivisVeckagans.
The administration notes that Mykolaiv became the fifth of seven ports where the agency planned to conduct operational dredging in 2019.
As reported, for the nine months of 2019 volume of cargo transshipment in the port amounted to more than 23 million tonnes, which is 20.4% more compared to the same period last year.
Germany’s state-run development bank (KfW) could provide EUR 60 million to Ukraine for the completion of construction of a breakwater and dredging works at the Odesa seaport and EUR 90 million for overhaul of H08 Zaporizhia-Mariupol highway and restoration of H32 Pokrovsk-Bakhmut-Mykhailivka road.
“Negotiations with KfW on a loan: EUR 60 million to complete the construction of a breakwater in the port of Odesa and EUR 90 million to overhaul H08 Zaporizhia-Mariupol roads,” Deputy Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine for European integration Viktor Dovhan wrote on his Facebook page.
At the same time, according to a posting on the website of the Infrastructure Ministry, Minister Volodymyr Omelyan confirmed Ukraine’s interest in borrowing from the Federal Republic of Germany in the amount of EUR 150 million (the KfW loan) provided for the restoration of transport infrastructure in the eastern regions of Ukraine. In particular, the Infrastructure Ministry plans to implement the following projects: the construction of a breakwater and the implementation of works to deepen the water area of the port of Odesa; repair works at the national road N08 Boryspil-Dnipro-Zaporizhia (through Kremenchuk)-Mariupol on the Zaporizhia-Mariupol road section and the restoration and improvement of the transport and operational condition of the H32 Pokrovsk-Bakhmut-Mykhailivka state-sustained highway.
According to the Infrastructure Ministry, Germany also expressed interest in participating in the modernization of the electric locomotives of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia and in electrifying the railways, in particular, in the south of Ukraine, near the ports.
In addition, as a result of negotiations with Germany, Ukraine will receive an additional 20,000 bilateral permits for road haulage, which will be valid until the end of January 2019.
In addition, the parties agreed to consider the possibility of increasing the quota of permits for 2019.
The Ukrainian Sea Port Authority plans to double dredging works at Ukrainian ports in 2019, bringing the volume of projects to 16.335 million cubic meters, the press service of the authority reported after Dredging day 2018 held in Odesa. “This figure reflects the amount of work that the Sea Port Authority plans to start in 2019 compared to the amount of work that was planned to start in 2018,” the press service of the authority told Interfax-Ukraine.
At the same time, the authority said that the consolidated data on the implementation of the dredging plan for the current year are now being collected, work on individual facilities is proceeding as part of the plan, and for some of them even ahead of schedule.
The plans for 2019 include the continuation of dredging at the ports of Chornomorsk and Yuzhny (both Odesa region), including work to dredge the first boot basin of the Sukhy estuary of the Chornomorsk port in the amount of 1.1 million cubic meters with a planned period of four months, as well as in Yuzhny port (second and fourth launch complexes) in the amount of 6.339 million cubic meters with a planned implementation period of 21 months.
To maintain the passport depths, it is planned to carry out work in the amount of 8.88 million cubic meters in the ports: Kherson, Reni, Izmail, Odesa, Berdiansk, Mariupol, as well as on the Buzko-Dniprovsky-Lymansky canal; Kyiv, Kamianske, Kaniv, Kremenchuk, Dniprodzerzhynsk, Dniprovske and Kakhovka water reservoirs.
China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd. (CHEC) on August 8, 2018, began dredging on the offshore maritime approach channel to Chornomorsk Port and in the operating area of the first boot basin of the Sukhy estuary. The dredging will allow large vessels with a draft of up to 14.5 meters, such as Capesize, deadweight up to 100,000 tonnes and containerships with a capacity of 8,000 TEU to the current and planned reconstruction of deep-sea quays, the press service of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA) has said.
The dredging project was developed by the Infrastructure Ministry’s institute and ChornomorNIIIProject. It will deepen the approach channel from 14.5 m to 16 m and extend the approach channel from 1,400 m to 1,600 m. The width will remain the same – 150 m. Dredging of the water area of the first boot basic of the Sukhy estuary will increase the depth in its central part up to 15 m. The total amount of dredging of Chornomorsk Port will be about 2 million cubic meters, including more than 500,000 cubic meters in the approach channel and about 1.5 million cubic meters in the water area. It is planned that the work on the projects will take two to five months.
The cost of the work is UAH 404.1 million without VAT. Of this amount, UAH 87.1 million will be spent on dredging of the channel, and UAH 317 million on increasing the water area. To carry out dredging in Chornomorsk, CHEC mobilized a dredging fleet of 15 vessels. All of them have already arrived in the port water area. As previously reported, CHEC was selected to conduct dredging operations at the port of Chornomorsk as a result of open tenders in the electronic public procurement system ProZorro on March 13, 2018.
CHEC also conducts dredging in the port of Yuzhny. In May 2017, the Chinese company and USPA signed two contracts, one of which has already been completed three months ahead of schedule, and the second is 70% completed.
