Dredging and boulder removal
In the first phase of the project, one and a half million cubic metres of sediment and hard moraine soil were removed. However, the total scope of the project is massive: nearly 20 million cubic metres of dredged material will need to be removed in total.
The large boulders typical of the northern Gulf of Bothnia made the dredging technically demanding. The massive boulders present in the material required specialised equipment and expertise.
Winter forces a tight schedule
The project schedule was tight. The Luleå area is covered by ice from late October to mid-May, which imposed an extremely strict timeline on the dredging – all work had to be completed before winter arrived.
“The project schedule was tight because the Scandinavian winter is unforgiving,” says Project Manager Ben Mooibroek. The trailing suction hopper dredger Gateway arrived at the project in summer 2024 and successfully completed its work at the end of August, leaving the remaining work to other units. The world’s largest backhoe dredger Magnor, grab dredger Kahmari, and many other vessels began dredging operations in July 2024 and worked at full speed to complete the project on time before the winter season.