Extended Operational and Trade Vocabulary

Dredging Industry and Reclamation Contractors glossary

Terms of the dredging and land-reclamation trade: cutter suction and trailing dredger methods, agitation and aggregate dredging, abrasion wear on cutter teeth and impellers, the major contractors such as Boskalis and Van Oord, port-authority dredging policy bodies, and the regulatory regimes governing marine sand and gravel extraction and terminal pre-dredging works.

592 defined terms.

Showing 250 on this page (page 1 of 3).

A

AAPA: American Association of Port Authorities, trade body representing seaports in the Americas.
Abrasion wear: Loss of metal from cutter teeth and pump impellers from sand and gravel, the dominant cost driver in CSD lifecycle economics.
Acta Marine: Den Helder based Dutch shipowner operating a fleet of walk-to-work vessels, multicats, and CTVs serving North Sea offshore wind operations.
Adriatic LNG Terminal: Offshore gravity-based LNG regasification terminal off Porto Levante, Italy, connected to the national grid by a submarine pipeline.
Aggregate dredging: Marine sand and gravel extraction for construction use, regulated in the UK by the Crown Estate and Marine Management Organisation.
Agitation dredging: Method that resuspends sediment for transport by ambient currents rather than mechanical lift, common in maintenance work.
Ahts vs dredger: Anchor handling tug supply vessels frequently shift CSD anchors and spuds during long deployments.
Air lift dredger: Compressed-air riser that lifts sediment by reduced-density airlift, used at depth in archaeology and deep-sea mining trials.
Alphonse Letzer: Former DEME CSD, predecessor class to D'Artagnan, retired and recycled by 2015.
Ambiorix: DEME self-propelled CSD of 19,200 kW total installed power, named after the Eburones chieftain.
Amelia: Boskalis TSHD of 4,500 m3 hopper capacity, used in port maintenance.
Amundsen: Vox Amundsen, Van Oord TSHD of 19,500 m3 capacity delivered 2017.
Anchor barge: Pontoon equipped with crane and winches that lays and shifts the eight to fourteen anchors typical of a large CSD.
Anchor Handling: Deployment and recovery of ground tackle, beach gear, and mooring spreads.
Antigoon: DEME TSHD of 13,700 m3 capacity, named after the giant of Antwerp legend.
Approach channel: Navigable channel between sea and port basin.
Aqua-Marine: Indian dredging arm doing maintenance at minor ports along the west coast.
Aquadelta: Belgian Jan De Nul TSHD of 4,400 m3 capacity for harbor maintenance.
Aquarius: Jan De Nul TSHD of 17,500 m3 hopper, sister to Bartolomeu Dias.
Archimedes screw: Not used in offshore wind; term retained here to distinguish from helical pile installation methods.
Argonaut: Bureau Veritas software suite for fleet performance and CII compliance monitoring.
Articulated dragarm: Two-section trailing pipe with intermediate cardan joint allowing the draghead to follow seabed contour.
Artificial island: Land mass created by reclamation, the Palm Jumeirah and Hong Kong International Airport being canonical examples.
Ashdod port deepening: Israeli capital project to deepen the southern container terminal, executed in part by Jan De Nul.
Astilleros Armon: Spanish shipbuilder in Asturias known for ocean-going tugs and offshore vessels.
Astondoa: Santa Pola, Spain builder founded in 1916, producing motoryachts up to 121 feet.
Athena: Jan De Nul CSD of 17,729 kW total installed, named after the Greek goddess of wisdom.
Atlantic II: Belgian backhoe pontoon operated by DEME.
Auger dredger: Horizontal rotating screw cutter, marketed by IMS Dredges and Ellicott for fine-grained sediment.
Avia: Inland Dutch hopper dredger built for canal maintenance.
Axial pump: High-flow, low-head pump used for ballast and cooling duties.

B

Backfilling: Post lay seabed restoration over a buried export or array cable, often performed by trailing suction hopper or jet sled.
Backhoe Dredger: Hydraulic-excavator-mounted dredger.
Backwash: Reverse flow used to clear blocked drag heads during TSHD trailing.
Bangkok Deep Seaport: Long-planned Laem Chabang Phase 3 reclamation tendered to Asian and European dredging consortia.
Bartolomeu Dias: Jan De Nul TSHD of 17,500 m3 capacity, named after the Portuguese navigator.
Bathymetric survey: Seabed depth mapping campaign required for siting tidal arrays, wave farms, CO2 injection wells, and subsea hydrogen pipelines.
Beach nourishment: Coastal protection technique.
Beaver dredger: IHC range of standardized small CSDs from Beaver 30 to Beaver 6500, the model number denoting nominal discharge diameter in millimeters.
Bed leveler: Drag beam or plough that smooths dredged surfaces to design line.
Beira deepening: Mozambique port channel project executed by Jan De Nul under World Bank funding.
Belt Conveyor: Continuous bulk-handling system used on shiploaders, shipunloaders, and yard transfer routes at dry-bulk terminals.
Bergen Group: Norwegian builder of small workboats used in dredging support.
Bernhard Schepers: Royal Bodewes hopper barge, type used in inland and short-sea dredged-spoil transport.
BHD: Backhoe dredger acronym, in international tender documents.
Big Dipper: NMDC backhoe dredger working in UAE port projects.
Biscayne Bay: Florida maintenance dredging cycle handled by Great Lakes Dredge and Dock and Weeks Marine.
Black Marlin: Boskalis semi-submersible heavy-transport vessel of about 76 m beam, designed to transport up to roughly 75,000 tonnes of cargo by float-on/float-off.
Blankenburg connection: Maasmond tunnel project requiring extensive trench dredging and immersed-tunnel backfill.
Boom dredger: Generic term for cutter or backhoe machines with extending arm.
Borkumriff: German North Sea sand-bank near Eemshaven, source of beach nourishment material.
Borrow area: Designated offshore zone from which fill sand is extracted for reclamation, with environmental impact assessment required.
Boskalis: Dutch dredging and salvage major, parent of SMIT Salvage since 2010.
Boskalis Africa: Boskalis TSHD of 20,000 m3 capacity.
Boskalis Atlas: TSHD of 18,000 m3 hopper capacity.
Boskalis Singapore: TSHD of 12,000 m3 used in South-East Asian harbors.
Bottom door: Hopper hull opening, hydraulically actuated, used for dumping sediment at sea.
Bow coupling: Floating-line connection at TSHD bow for shore pumping after sailing in.
Bow jet: Self-emptying nozzle that resuspends hopper sand for pump-ashore.
Bray Maritime: UK small-port maintenance dredging contractor.
Breakwater core: Quarry-run rock fill placed by side-stone dumpers and split barges, the foundation for armor units.
Bremerhaven: German port and industrial cluster supporting offshore wind logistics and increasingly green hydrogen demonstrators.
Bridge survey: Single-beam pre-clearance survey ahead of new dredge cuts.
Brisbane: Port of Brisbane reclamation used local and Dutch dredgers including Pacific Reef.
Bubbler curtain: Air-bubble screen around marine works to deflect sediment plume and reduce turbidity impact.
Bucket ladder dredger: Chain of buckets on inclined ladder, the oldest mechanical dredger type, still operating in tin mining off Indonesia.
Buffalo Hump: Dredged-material island in Chesapeake Bay used for confined disposal.
Bulkhead: Vertical partition dividing a ship into compartments.
Bund: Containment kerb around refueling area to retain spilled fuel.

C

C-Job Naval Architects: Dutch design house active in CSD and TSHD concept design.
Cabanga: Boskalis split hopper barge series.
Caisson: Large concrete box used in quay walls and dry docks.
Caland Canal: Rotterdam port access deepened by Maasvlakte 2 works.
Cardium: Boskalis TSHD of 7,000 m3.
Cargo Beam: Hopper structural element supporting bottom doors.
Castor: Jan De Nul CSD of 14,000 kW total power, sister to Pollux.
Cat Lai: Vietnamese container port whose access channel has been deepened by SAIPEM-led consortia.
CCCC Dredging: CCCC Tianjin Dredging and CCCC Shanghai Dredging, the dredging arms of China Communications Construction Company, building the South China Sea reclaimed islands.
CCS: Cargo Containment System under the IGC and IGF Codes.
Chamarel: Boskalis fall-pipe vessel used for subsea rock installation in offshore wind.
Channel deepening: Capital project to increase navigable draft, a recurring Boskalis-Van Oord-DEME-Jan De Nul revenue line.
Charlemagne: DEME TSHD of 5,000 m3.
Charles Darwin: Jan De Nul TSHD of 30,500 m3 hopper, one of the largest trailers in the world.
Cheops: DEME CSD of 11,750 kW total installed power.
China Communications Construction Company: Beijing-based state contractor that owns the world's largest dredging fleet by aggregate capacity, including Tian Kun Hao.
Chittagong Bay terminal: Bangladesh project requiring approach channel dredging by IHC-built local fleet.
Civmec: Australian fabricator that builds and converts small dredgers for the Pilbara iron-ore ports.
Clam shell: Two-piece grab bucket on wire crane, used for hard or contaminated sediment.
Clearwater: USACE-managed sediment quality program for Great Lakes harbors.
Coastal protection: Application of dredging to nourish beaches, build offshore breakwaters or restore wetlands.
Cobus: Inland Dutch trailing hopper of 1,000 m3.
Cofferdam: Temporary watertight enclosure for construction.
Concrete mattress: Articulated block mat placed over backfilled trenches and cable crossings.
Confined Aquatic Disposal: Subaqueous cell capped with clean material for contaminated sediment isolation.
Confined Disposal Facility: Upland cell that retains dredged material behind dikes for long-term storage.
Congo River bar: Periodic dredging at the Boma-Matadi bar undertaken by Jan De Nul and DEME.
Coode Island: Port of Melbourne reclamation precinct extended by maintenance and capital works.
Coriolis: Belgian Jan De Nul TSHD of 6,300 m3.
COSMOS: Russian-built LEO satellites that historically hosted the Cospas payload.
Costa Container Lines: Italian port-feeder operator dependent on Mediterranean channel maintenance.
CPB Contractors: Australian civil contractor partnering with Dutch dredgers on Sydney Bayside reclamation.
Cristobal Colon: Jan De Nul TSHD of 46,000 m3 hopper, tied with Leiv Eiriksson as the world's largest trailing suction hopper dredger.
Cross-section survey: Periodic measurement perpendicular to channel axis to compute payment volume.
Crowley Maritime: US ocean towage, harbor towage, and logistics operator headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.
CSD: Cutter Suction Dredger, removes hard material through a rotating cutter head.
Curtin University: Australian academic centre publishing extensively on dredging plume modeling.
Cutter ladder: arm carrying the cutter head on a CSD.
Cutter pick: Tungsten-carbide tip on cutter teeth, consumable item with thousands per CSD per project.

D

D'Artagnan: DEME CSD of 28,200 kW total installed power, named after the musketeer.
Damen Shipyards: Dutch shipbuilder supplying CTVs, multicats, and SOVs to the offshore wind sector from Gorinchem and partner yards.
Damietta: Egyptian port maintained by Suez Canal Authority dredging fleet.
DCI: Dredging Corporation of India, public-sector dredger headquartered in Visakhapatnam.
De Hoop Lobith: Dutch builder of tugs and pontoons supporting dredging.
Decant: Overflow of clarified water from hopper or reclamation bund during loading or filling.
Deep Reach: Dredging Today industry term for deepwater operations beyond 30 m draft.
DEME: Belgian marine contractor with subsidiaries including DEME Offshore active in foundation and turbine installation.
DEME Concessions: DEME subsidiary developing Rentel and SeaMade offshore wind projects in Belgian North Sea.
Deurganckdok: Antwerp container dock requiring continuous Scheldt maintenance dredging.
Disposal area: Designated water or land site for placement of dredged material, licensed under the London Convention for marine disposal.
Dolphin tracker: Multibeam-equipped sweep barge measuring final post-dredge depth.
DOP pump: Damen-design submersible dredge pump, the DOP150 to DOP350 range covering 150 to 350 mm discharge.
Drag head: Drag head of a trailing suction hopper dredger.
Dragarm: Outboard suction pipe of a TSHD, ranging up to 155 m on Cristobal Colon.
Dragline: Crawler crane with drag bucket, historically used for marsh dredging.
Dredge well: Hopper opening through which trailing pipe is deployed.
DREDGEPACK: HYPACK-derived software suite for hopper and cutter production monitoring.
Dredging International: Former name for DEME's dredging division.
DRiVE: DEME Carbon Capture project that retrofits dredgers with LNG and methanol dual-fuel systems.
Drumstick: Slang for cutter ladder counterweight.
Dumb Barge: Non-propelled barge moved by tug or pusher.
Dustpan dredger: USACE Mississippi River dredger with wide horizontal suction mouth, exemplified by Hurley and Jadwin.
Dynamic Positioning: Computer-controlled thruster station keeping for salvage and dive vessels.

E

Eagle: DEME former CSD.
Earth pressure: Soil resistance against cutter, key driver of cutter motor sizing on CSDs.
East Bay dredging: Maintenance program in San Francisco Bay handled by Manson Construction and Curtin Maritime.
East Container Terminal: Colombo Port reclamation under Adani group contract with Indian fleet involvement.
Echo sounder: Acoustic depth sensor.
Edax: Jan De Nul CSD of 16,375 kW total installed.
EDC: Export Development Canada, the Canadian export credit agency with selective shipping exposure.
Eemshaven: Dutch port serving as offshore wind marshaling base for German and Dutch North Sea projects.
EIA: Environmental Impact Assessment, statutory study supporting offshore wind consent applications.
Ekofisk reuse: North Sea storage caisson covered by Boskalis fall-pipe rock placement.
Elwood Hopper: Penta-Ocean TSHD.
Emden: German port whose Ems channel maintenance is contracted in EU tenders.
Energy Transition: DEME and Van Oord LNG and methanol dual-fuel newbuilds responding to FuelEU Maritime.
Engelandvaarder: Dutch hopper barge used in Maasvlakte 2 reclamation.
Engineer Manual EM 1110-2-5025: USACE manual for dredging and dredged material management, the US bible for federal dredging.
Engineer Regulation ER 1110-2-1156: USACE regulation on safety of dams during dredging operations.
Envisat: ESA satellite historically used to monitor dredging plume extents.
Equimar: Spanish dredging contractor active on Mediterranean ports.
Erika oil-spill: 1999 French Atlantic incident requiring contaminated-sediment dredging response.
Eurodelta: Boskalis split barge.
European Dredging Association: EuDA, Brussels-based industry body covering Belgian, Dutch and other EU contractors.

F

Fairway maintenance: Periodic re-dredging to design depth, ordinarily by TSHD on contracts of multiple years.
Fall-Pipe Vessel: Rock-dumping vessel installing protection over subsea infrastructure.
Felicia: Boskalis TSHD of 4,500 m3.
Felix: Boskalis TSHD of 4,500 m3.
Ferdinand de Lesseps: DEME TSHD of 18,000 m3 hopper named after the Suez Canal engineer.
Filling: Reclamation slurry placement behind containment bunds.
Fines: Silt and clay fraction lost to overflow during TSHD loading.
Finlay: Cone-crusher manufacturer used on stockpiled rock for breakwater core.
Flemish Banks: Belgian North Sea borrow areas for beach nourishment.
Flexible pipe: Rubber or steel-flex hose connecting dredger and floating pipeline.
Flexicaisson: Patented Boskalis quay-wall caisson.
Floating pipeline: Pontoon-mounted slurry discharge line linking CSD to shore.
Flushing: Hopper sand discharge through bow-jet system.
Flyland: 2000s Boskalis-Van Oord concept for North Sea offshore Schiphol replacement, shelved.
Fos-sur-Mer: Mediterranean French port studied for CCS export and ammonia import.
Foxgrove: Aggregate dredger active in UK waters.
Freeport LNG: LNG export terminal on Quintana Island, Texas, operated by Freeport LNG Development with first cargo in 2019.
Fremantle Outer Harbour: West Australian port expansion targeted by Boskalis and Van Oord JV.
Friendship: Saipem fall-pipe vessel often working alongside dredgers in offshore developments.

G

Gabbiana: Italian Fincantieri-built dredger for Naples port.
Galileo Galilei: Boskalis Mega Hopper class TSHD of 28,500 m3 capacity.
Garry Mason: USACE district dredging supervisor archetype.
Gateway Programme: Suez Canal Authority series of expansions through 2030.
Gent: Belgian Ghent port maintenance contracted to DEME and Jan De Nul.
Geo Asia: Survey vessel chartered for pre-dredge bathymetric work.
Geo-instrumentation: Pore-pressure and settlement instrumentation in reclamation cells to monitor consolidation.
George F. Bennett: Manson Construction trailing hopper dredger.
George W. Allen: USACE survey vessel for Mississippi River dredging operations.
Geotextile tube: Filter-fabric tube filled with slurry, used for beach groin and shoreline structures.
GLDD: Great Lakes Dredge and Dock LLC, the largest US dredging contractor by revenue, headquartered in Houston.
Goliath: DEME giant backhoe dredger with 40 t bucket and 40 m reach.
Goodwin Sands: Sandbank off the Kent coast that has influenced English Channel offshore wind layout planning.
Goro Nickel: New Caledonia mining project requiring marine outfall dredging.
Grab Dredger: Crane-grab-based dredger.
Gravels Dredge: French aggregate dredger operating from Le Havre.
Green Port Initiative: PIANC working group on environmentally sustainable dredging.
Grootschalig: Dutch term for large-scale reclamation, applied to Maasvlakte 2.
GUDE: Jan De Nul side-stone dumper.

H

Hai Lu Tian Xia 1: CCCC trailing hopper dredger of 27,000 m3 capacity.
Hai Yang Shi You 286: CNOOC pipelay-and-dredge vessel.
Haifa Bay: Israeli port deepening, awarded to international consortia.
Hamilton-Trent: Canadian dredging firm absorbed into McKeil Marine.
Han Jiang: CCCC CSD active in domestic port works.
Hang Jun 5001: CCCC CSD with 6,000 m3/h discharge capacity.
Harwich Haven: UK approach channel deepening for container traffic, recurring Boskalis and Van Oord scope.
Heavy lift dredger: Working CSD lifted and shipped on a heavy-transport vessel for global mobilization.
Helios: Jan De Nul CSD of 23,200 kW installed, the largest CSD afloat alongside Spartacus.
HFO scrubber: Exhaust gas cleaning system retrofitted to many dredger newbuilds for IMO 2020 compliance.
Hidromek: Turkish builder of small backhoe-on-pontoon dredgers for inland water bodies.
Holland America Line: Premium brand within Carnival Corporation founded 1873.
Hong Kong International Airport: Chek Lap Kok original reclamation 1992-1998 used 70 dredgers; third runway 2016-2023 added 650 ha.
Hopper: funnel-shaped container receiving bulk from grabs and feeding conveyors or trucks.
Hopper barge: Self propelled or towed dredger spoil barge.
Hopper coaming: Top edge of hopper, set above the loading line to retain overflow.
Hopper Dredger: TSHD/THSD trailing-suction hopper dredger.
Houston Ship Channel: US compulsory pilotage waterway 53 nautical miles long served by Houston Pilots.
Hua An Long: CCCC trailing hopper, 21,000 m3 hopper.
Hudson: NMDC TSHD of 11,650 m3 hopper.
Humber Estuary: UK estuarine maintenance program executed by ABP and Boskalis Westminster.
HVO: Hydrotreated vegetable oil, a drop-in renewable diesel used in inland vessel engines.
Hydrographic Chart: Nautical chart produced by a hydrographic office.
HyperBaric: DEME's experimental deep-sea mining dredging programme.

I

IADC: International Association of Drilling Contractors; daily drilling report standard.
IHC Beaver: Standardized CSD range from Beaver 30 to Beaver 6500.
IHC Easydredge: Standardized TSHD range from 2,000 to 6,000 m3 hopper.
IHC Merwede: Dutch shipbuilder known for dredgers, now Royal IHC.
IIslands of Faroe: Confidential Boskalis quarry project, ferry port works.
Immingham Outer Harbour: UK Humber port expansion completed by Boskalis Westminster.
In-situ density: Bulk density of seabed before dredging, key payment parameter.
Inland Dredging Association: US Mississippi river dredging trade body.
InterDredge: Smaller Asian dredging contractor.
International Maritime Organization: IMO, UN specialized agency for shipping, based in London.
Iquique deepening: Chilean port project performed by Jan De Nul.
Iquitos River: Peruvian maintenance program for Amazon shipping.
IsaacBay: Australian project location for Mackay reclamation.
Iskenderun: Turkish container port whose access deepening was tendered internationally.
Italconstruct: Italian civil works partner on Mediterranean dredging tenders.

J

Jacques Cartier: DEME TSHD of 8,400 m3.
Jadwin: USACE dustpan dredger working the Lower Mississippi.
Jaipur: NMDC inland reservoir CSD project.
Jakarta Bay: Indonesian National Capital Integrated Coastal Development giant seawall plan, partial works to Penta-Ocean and Dutch contractors.
James River: USACE maintenance scope with annual GLDD awards.
Jan De Nul: Belgian marine contractor operating Voltaire, Vole au vent, Taillevent, and cable installation assets including Isaac Newton and Fleeming Jenkin.
JBP: IACS Joint Bulker Project, the development project that produced CSR-BC.
JFE Engineering: Japanese builder of hopper barges and small dredgers.
JPort Engineers: Japanese port-engineering consultancy active in ASEAN dredging works.
Juan Sebastian de Elcano: Boskalis Mega Hopper TSHD of 32,000 m3.
Jumbo Shipping: Schiedam-based Dutch heavy-lift specialist operating self-propelled heavy-lift vessels with tandem mast cranes including Jumbo Javelin and Jumbo Jubilee.

K

Kapellen: Belgian municipality where DEME maintains shore-side fabrication yard.
Karlsruhe: Rhine port dredged by Bilfinger Berger and inland operators.
Keelung port: Taiwanese harbor deepening repeatedly awarded to Penta-Ocean.
Keppel Smit Towage: Singapore-based joint venture providing harbor towage in Southeast Asia.
Keuken Maritime: Dutch hopper barge operator.
Khalifa Port: Abu Dhabi container port reclamation built by Boskalis-Jan De Nul JV.
Kingston Bay: Jamaican port maintenance scope.
Kishimoto: Japanese builder of bucket-ladder dredgers.
Klaipeda: Lithuanian port hosting EU-listed ship recycling facilities including Vakaru Baltijos Laivu Statykla.