Extended Operational and Trade Vocabulary

Dredging Industry and Reclamation Contractors glossary (page 2)

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 2 of 3).

K

Kuala Tanjung: Indonesian port project under JICA funding.
KwaZulu-Natal: South African region with Durban and Richards Bay dredging campaigns.
Kyle Tide: USACE leveling drag.

L

Lafayette: GLDD TSHD.
Lamma Channel: Hong Kong area dredged for power-station cooling intake.
Land reclamation: Creation of new land by filling water with sand, gravel or rock.
Lash barge: lighter aboard ship system, historic but still in spares trade.
Leiv Eiriksson: Jan De Nul TSHD of 46,000 m3 hopper, sister to Cristobal Colon.
Leonardo da Vinci: Prysmian cable lay vessel delivered in 2021 with two carousels and DP3 capability.
Levant: Mediterranean dredging market, with frequent Boskalis and Jan De Nul involvement.
Lewek Constellation: Heavy-lift, pipelay, and subsea construction vessel of EMAS Chiyoda Subsea.
Limay: Philippine reclamation site.
Liquefaction: Loss of shear strength in fine wet bulks (Group A); cause of capsizes.
Litoral Norte: Brazilian beach nourishment programme.
Liverpool 2: Mersey container terminal expansion requiring Boskalis Westminster channel deepening.
Lobo Marinho: Madeiran ferry company benefiting from dredged port access.
London Convention: 1972 convention on the prevention of marine pollution by dumping of wastes.
Long Beach: California cruise homeport hosting the permanently moored Queen Mary and Carnival's Carnival Firenze and Carnival Panorama.
Longboat: GLDD scow.
Lower Mississippi: Mississippi River from Cairo to the Gulf of Mexico, unleveed natural channel.
Lower Wear: UK river maintenance dredging for Port of Sunderland.
Luanda: Angolan capital port maintained by Jan De Nul.

M

Maasvlakte 2: Rotterdam port extension 2008-2013 reclaiming 2,000 ha at a cost of EUR 1.5 billion, executed by PUMA consortium of Boskalis and Van Oord.
MacGregor: Common type of folding steel hatch cover.
Macroni: Reclamation term for noodle-like sand mound from rainbow discharge.
Madrid Convention: Refers to dredging-material pollution and the OSPAR convention region.
Maintenance dredging: periodic dredging maintaining design depths.
Manson Construction: Seattle-based US dredging contractor, second largest in US after GLDD.
Manyara: Boskalis TSHD of 12,400 m3 hopper.
Marcello: Italian dredger fleet name.
Marco Polo: DEME TSHD of 16,750 m3 hopper.
Marker Wadden: Boskalis EU-funded ecological islands in IJsselmeer, 1,000 ha new wetland.
Marlim Sul: Brazilian Petrobras subsea project requiring dredging support.
Marmara: Turkish dredging market location.
Mary Maersk: Triple-E class container ship driving deepening of approach channels.
Matabungkay: Philippine reclamation location.
Matanza Reach: Long Beach Harbor.
MCT Brindisi: Italian container terminal expansion with Italian dredgers.
Mediterranean Shipping Company: MSC, owns terminals via Terminal Investment Limited.
Mega-hopper: TSHD class above 30,000 m3 hopper capacity.
Mercator: Boskalis Mega Hopper TSHD of 25,000 m3.
Methanol-ready: Newbuild specification for dual-fuel dredgers, adopted by Van Oord Vox Apolonia and DEME River Thames.
Mid-Bay Island: USACE Chesapeake placement site.
Mid-North Sea hub: Future UK offshore-wind area whose foundation scour protection requires fall-pipe dredging support.
Middle Branch: Baltimore Harbor.
Min Hong Wan: CCCC TSHD of 9,000 m3 hopper.
Minamoto: Penta-Ocean TSHD.
Minas Maritime: Bangladeshi minor port operator working with NMDC.
MIRR: Maritime and Inland River Resources, USACE acronym.
Mission Bay: San Diego reclamation site.
Mississippi: USACE flagship dredging district.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries: Japanese conglomerate whose climate control division produces marine container refrigeration units.
MMG Sediment: French sediment management firm.
Mooring buoy: Buoy to which a ship may secure.
Mosselbank: Dutch nature-restoration project using dredged material.
Mowi: Norwegian salmon farming company, the world's largest by volume, operating well boats and service vessels.
Multibeam echosounder: Hydrographic sonar emitting a swath of beams to map bathymetry.
Multipurpose dredger: Vessel combining grab and trailing pipe, popular in inland ports.
Mumbai Trans Harbour: Mumbai sea link reclamation under L and T-CCCC consortium.

N

Nan Tian Long: CCCC CSD with 23,000 kW total power, the largest in Chinese fleet alongside Tian Kun Hao.
Nanjing: CCCC inland dredging projects on the Yangtze.
Nansen: Vox Nansen, Van Oord TSHD of 19,500 m3.
Naples: Italian cruise port serving the Bay of Naples and the Amalfi Coast.
Navimo: Italian dredging concessionaire.
NDSC: National Dredging Standards Committee, USA.
Nelson Mandela Bay: South African deepening at Coega port executed by Jan De Nul.
NERIDES: ERDC dredging research programme.
Net production: Cubic meters of in-situ material moved per hour, the standard dredging KPI.
New Bedford Harbor: PCB-contaminated sediment dredging supervised by US EPA.
New Suez Canal: Suez Canal Authority 2014-2015 35 km parallel channel and deepening, executed by Jan De Nul, Van Oord, DEME and Boskalis in 11 months.
NMDC: National Marine Dredging Company, Abu Dhabi state contractor, NMDC Energy after 2023 merger.
NMDC Bonny: TSHD of 18,000 m3 capacity.
NMDC Ras Al Khaimah: NMDC TSHD of 11,000 m3.
Nordic Giant: Nordic Aggregates UK aggregate dredger.
North Sea Group: Generic term for Boskalis-Van Oord-DEME-Jan De Nul as a market quartet.
Norvik: Stockholm port reclamation by Skanska and Dutch dredgers.
Notes to bidders: Standard dredging tender clause covering site conditions.
NSTA: Nigeria Sub-Sea Trunkline Access maintained by Nigerian Ports Authority dredging.
Numerical modeling: Plume dispersion modeling with MIKE21 or Delft3D for permitting.
Nydam: Boskalis backhoe dredger.

O

Ocean Shores: Washington state beach nourishment program.
Oder Estuary: Polish-German waterway whose maintenance is run jointly.
OECS: Eastern Caribbean port maintenance market.
Offshore Wind: Adjacent market for dredging via rock placement, scour protection and cable trenching, dominated by Boskalis Subsea, DEME Offshore and Van Oord Offshore Wind.
Olifants River: South African estuary dredging.
Olympic Park: London 2012 venue, built partly on dredged-and-treated land.
Onyx Hopper: NMDC TSHD.
Optimum hopper load: Sediment load at which TSHD economics peak before overflow losses dominate.
Orient Dredging: Hong Kong-based small contractor.
Orinoco: Venezuelan river deepened for iron-ore export.
Orinoco Iron: Customer of pre-1999 Boskalis Orinoco river deepening.
OSV: Offshore support vessel; umbrella term for AHTS, PSV, MPSV, etc.
Overburden: Soft layer overlying target dredging stratum.
Overflow: Drainage pathway from a sink or tank, required to be configured to prevent contamination of potable systems.
Oxford Marine: UK small workboat operator on dredging support.

P

Pacific Reef: Boskalis TSHD of 5,600 m3.
Pagbilao: Philippine reclamation project.
Palm Jebel Ali: 2002-2008 Nakheel reclamation of 13.4 km2 by Van Oord with Boskalis support, partially completed and paused.
Palm Jumeirah: 2001-2006 Nakheel reclamation of 5 km2 by Van Oord using 100 million m3 of sand and 5.5 million m3 of rock.
Pampus: IJ-mouth island built historically by dredging.
Panama Canal Expansion: 2007-2016 widening with significant dredging by GLDD, CCCC and Jan De Nul.
PANYNJ: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the harbor deepening commissioning body for the 50 ft programme.
PAR: Pre-Arrival Report submitted to port control.
Paranagua: Brazilian port maintenance contract held by Van Oord.
Patiala: Indian inland reservoir dredging by NMDC.
Peene Werft: Builder of small dredgers on the German Baltic coast.
Pelican: Original name of Drake's Golden Hind before his circumnavigation of 1577 to 1580.
Penta-Ocean Construction: Tokyo-based marine contractor with TSHD and reclamation expertise across Asia and the Middle East.
Persian Gulf: Shallow marginal sea between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.
Persian Pride: NMDC TSHD.
PIANC: World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure.
Pijaco: Venezuelan dredger operator.
Pile-driver pontoon: Used in conjunction with dredging on quay-wall construction.
Pipeline crossing: Trench dredging across cables and pipelines, requiring backfill or concrete mattress.
Pleiades: NMDC TSHD.
Plough: Towed seabed implement creating a trench for simultaneous cable burial during lay.
PMV: Port Management Vancouver dredging contract scope.
Poet: Boskalis TSHD.
Pollux: Ageotec compact observation-class ROV.
Pondo: South African port reclamation project.
Pontoon: Floating platform for pipeline, anchors or stationary dredgers.
Port Hedland: West Australian iron-ore port deepening repeatedly tendered to Van Oord and Boskalis.
Port Said: Egyptian Mediterranean entry to the Suez Canal, supplied by Misr Petroleum and Wepco.
Portslade: Brighton-area dredging operations base.
Posidonia Oceanica: Mediterranean seagrass protected under EU Habitats Directive, constraint for inter-array cable routing in southern Europe.
Power-pack barge: Mobile power station for cutter operations where shore power is unavailable.
Pre-treatment: Preparatory exhaust handling such as soot reduction ahead of SCR catalyst.
Prestige: 2002 tanker breakup off Galicia, stern section closure operation completed 2017.
Prince William Sound: Alaskan area requiring contaminated sediment dredging post-Exxon Valdez.
Production formula: Net m3/hour = pipe area times velocity times concentration, basic CSD KPI.
Promise: Boskalis TSHD.
PUMA: Boskalis-Van Oord joint venture executing Maasvlakte 2.
Pump-ashore: Discharge mode in which TSHD moors and pumps cargo through shore pipeline.
Punta Catalina: Dominican Republic terminal dredging.

Q

Qatari LNG: Ras Laffan port deepening by Van Oord and Jan De Nul.
Qingdao: CCCC home port expansion.
Queensland Bulk Ports: Australian client for Hay Point and Abbot Point maintenance.
Quito Maritime: Generic Latin American dredging contractor reference.

R

Radiale: Belgian inland dredging segment.
Rainbowing: Discharge of slurry as a high-velocity jet from TSHD bow, used to build reclamation profile and as marketing icon.
Ras Al Khair: Saudi port reclamation by Boskalis and NMDC.
Ras Tanura: Saudi Aramco port maintenance scope.
Razende Bol: Dutch sandbank used as nourishment source.
Reclamation: Creating new land from the sea.
Reisswolf: DEME-owned cutter teeth supplier.
Renewables installation vessel: Often supports dredging in cable trench and scour protection scopes.
Repositioning hours: Off-hire time for dredger transit between projects.
Reverse osmosis: Membrane fresh water generator producing potable water from sea water.
Richards Bay: South African coal export port maintained by Transnet and Boskalis.
River Thames: DEME TSHD of 11,300 m3, dual-fuel methanol pioneer.
Rock dredger: CSD configured with rock cutter head and heavier ladder for igneous and limestone.
Rockpiper: Boskalis fall-pipe vessel of 25,500 t rock capacity.
Rotterdam: Major Dutch port historically central to European trade.
RSI: Royal Schelde Industries, historic Dutch builder of dredgers absorbed into Damen.
Rubble mound breakwater: Breakwater using armour stone and underlayers.

S

SAAM Smit: Towage operator supporting dredging at South American ports.
Sabine Pass: LNG terminal whose channel was deepened by GLDD.
Sabine-Neches: USACE Texas dredging district.
Saltend: Humber chemical port maintenance.
Sand Dune: Reclamation feature created by rainbow discharge.
Sand search: Pre-dredging marine investigation for borrow sources.
Sand wave: Bedform requiring periodic maintenance dredging across many North Sea channels.
Sandri: Italian small-CSD operator.
Santos: Brazilian Sao Paulo port deepening, repeatedly awarded by Antaq.
Saudi Cable: Cable-burial dredging market.
SBI Marine: French dredging contractor.
Scaldis: DEME heavy-lift JV vessel, occasional dredging support.
Scheldt: Belgian-Dutch estuary requiring continuous maintenance for Antwerp access.
Scour Protection: Rock or mattress placed at the base of offshore foundations to prevent seabed erosion that would expose cables.
Sediment quality: Chemical characterisation determining whether dredged material can be sea-disposed.
Segregated water: Cleaned overflow from confined disposal facilities.
Selat Karimun: Indonesian sand source historically used for Singapore reclamation, exports banned 2007.
Selecta: Boskalis salvage vessel.
Self-emptying: Hopper discharge by pump-ashore, bottom-door dumping or split-hull opening.
Sembcorp Marine: Singaporean offshore and shipbuilding group with Tuas Boulevard Yard.
Sevilla: Boskalis TSHD of 4,500 m3.
Sezi: Boskalis split hopper barge.
Shanghai Yangshan: Container port reclamation by CCCC.
Shantou: Chinese port deepening by CCCC fleet.
Sheet pile bulkhead: Reclamation perimeter alternative to rock bund, common in port quay extension.
Shenzhen: Chinese port dredging by CCCC.
Shoreline Management Plan: UK Defra-driven planning framework that drives nourishment programs.
Side casting dredger: TSHD that discharges to one side without storing in hopper, used in heavily silting bars.
Side stone dumper: Vessel for breakwater rock placement, e.g. Bonny River and Pompei.
Sigma: NMDC backhoe dredger.
Silt curtain: Reference dredging mitigation measure.
Singapore reclamation: Continuous national programme increasing Singapore land area by 25 percent since 1965, with Tuas Megaport Phase 1 (2015-2021) the largest current scope.
Singapore Tuas Megaport: 1,337 ha mega-port reclamation in four phases, executed by Boskalis, Van Oord, DEME, Penta-Ocean and Hyundai E and C.
Sint Annaland: Dutch dredged-material island restoration site.
Sirius: Boskalis fall-pipe vessel of 25,500 t rock capacity, sister to Rockpiper.
Sittard: Dutch maintenance dredging hub.
Skagen: Danish port maintained by local and Dutch dredgers.
Slurry: Mixture of dredged solids and water flowing through dredger pipelines, typically 10-30 percent solids by volume.
Smart Dredging: IADC and PIANC initiative on data-driven dredging operations.
Smit: Boskalis-owned salvage and towage brand, occasionally supporting dredging.
Snake Island: Boskalis project location reference.
Sohar: Omani port expansion executed by DEME.
Sokol: Russian Sakhalin oil export terminal requiring dredging support.
Songkhla: Thai port deepening project.
Soundings: Depth measurements aggregated into bathymetric surveys for dredge management.
South Channel: Port Phillip Bay deepening completed by Boskalis in 2009.
South China Sea: Marginal sea of the western Pacific bordered by China and Southeast Asia.
Sovereign: Global Marine cable ship, 130 m LOA, built 1991 as Toisa Sovereign, contracted to Atlantic Cable Maintenance Agreement from Portland UK.
Spartacus: DEME CSD of 44,180 kW total installed power, the world's most powerful CSD, delivered 2021 and LNG dual-fuel.
Spread layout: CSD anchor and pipeline plan for a project, defining advance pattern.
Spud: A vertical steel beam dropped through a barge well into the riverbed to hold position.
Spud carriage: Sliding spud frame allowing CSD to advance without releasing all anchors.
Spud poker: Slang for spud raising and lowering operations.
Square: Surveyor term for a 100 m by 100 m dredge tile.
Steady-state production: CSD output level after rate normalization, used for invoicing.
Stilt: NMDC support vessel.
Stockholm Norvik: Swedish reclamation project.
Strandway: Boskalis TSHD of 16,500 m3 hopper.
Stripping: Unloading of a container.
Sub-Bottom Profiler: Acoustic survey instrument used in cable and pipeline route surveys to image sediment layers.
Subsea7: International subsea contractor whose vessels and ROVs support offshore wind cable repair and inspection.
Suction inlet: Mouth of dredge pump suction pipe.
Suction pipe: Dragarm assembly on TSHD or fixed pipe on CSD.
Suez Canal Authority: Egyptian authority operating compulsory pilotage through the Suez Canal.
Suez Canal Expansion 2015: 35 km parallel channel and 37 km deepening completed in 12 months by Boskalis, Van Oord, DEME, Jan De Nul and the Egyptian dredging fleet.
Sun Rock: Boskalis fall-pipe vessel.
Surface piercing dredger: Concept name for cutter-suction operating at very shallow depth.
Susitna: Alaskan delta dredging project.
Sweep dredging: Use of bed leveler to remove ridges between adjacent CSD cuts.
Swing pontoon: Floating pontoon supporting CSD anchor wire as the cutter swings across the cut face.
Swing wire: Wire connecting cutter spud to swing anchor, controlling CSD swing motion.
Sydney Bayside: NSW container terminal expansion bid by Boskalis and Van Oord.

T

Tadjoura: Djibouti port dredging by NMDC and Chinese contractors.
Tagus Estuary: Portuguese maintenance dredging by Boskalis and local firms.
Tahiti: French Polynesian charter destination and gateway to Society and Tuamotu Islands.
Tail wire: Aft anchor wire of CSD spread.
Taklamakan: CCCC TSHD.
Tamiami: USACE Florida maintenance contract.
Tang Shan Wan: CCCC TSHD.
Taranto: Italian port deepening by Boskalis and Jan De Nul JV.
Taung Hai: CCCC TSHD.
Te Wai Pounamu: Maori name for South Island, referenced in NZ dredging permits.
Templeman: GLDD scow.
Tennessee Valley: USACE dredging area.
Terramare: Finnish dredging contractor in DEME group.
Test pit: Pre-dredging trial excavation to confirm sediment classification.
Texel: Dutch island whose nourishment is recurring Rijkswaterstaat scope.
Themba: Boskalis split hopper barge.
Thomas Cook: Generic historic shipowner reference.
Thor: 1,000 MW Danish wind farm under construction, RWE operated, Siemens Gamesa SG 14-236 DD turbines, due 2027.
Tian Jing Hao: CCCC self-propelled CSD of 21,000 kW, used in South China Sea reclamation.
Tian Kun Hao: CCCC self-propelled CSD of 25,800 kW total installed, the largest in Asia, delivered 2019.
Tian Yi Hao: CCCC CSD.
Tideway: Boskalis-owned subsea cable and offshore wind installation arm, formerly independent Dutch dredging firm.
Tieshan: CCCC TSHD.