Two drag suction dredgers, Hangjun 6008 and 6009, were delivered officially in Qidong Jiangsu Province on April 26^th, indicating an important breakthrough in intelligent dredging equipment of China. Such dredgers were designed by ZPMC and IHC of Netherlands jointly and manufactured by ZPMC Qidong Marine Engineering Co., Ltd. with the investment by CCCC Shanghai Dredging Co., Ltd.

Such twin dredgers, equipped with the most automatic dredging control system in the world, features the automatic emission of low density, automatic draught control, automatic arm sequence control, automatic winch control, automatic pump control, automatic control on movable guard of drag head, automatic speed control, draught and load measurement system and dredging trace displaying system. They can work intelligently in different working conditions, improving the operation efficiency by 15%, compared with the manual operation.

The dredgers were commenced to manufacture on Oct, 9^th, 2017 and the launching ceremony was held on Aug 18^th, 2018 together with the R&D, design, manufacturing and assembly completed jointly by companies of China and Netherlands. Two dredgers are 108.25m in the molded length, 24.50m in the molded width, 7.60m in the molded depth and maximum excavation depth of 30m and cabin volume of 6,500m³. They are driven by double motors and double propellers, equipped with single pump and single drag pipe as well as new environment friendly device on the overflow cylinder, making sure no limit on the voyage area.

Considering the environment protection in designing and manufacturing such two dredgers, the automat environment friendly valve control system was equipped at the bottom of the overflow cylinders to adjust and control the flowing speed and the water level and to reduce the disturbance of the overflow on the water body in rivers, making sure rapid sedimentation of the silt onto the river bed, thus, realizing the environment protection in the operation of dredgers.

It’s learned that such two dredgers will be put into operation at Port of Lianyun and the south passage at the estuary of Changjiang River respectively after the delivery. Port of Lianyun, as the east end of the new Eurasian Continental Bridge, serves as the most convenient gate to the sea for countries in the Middle Asia and the best transit port of cargos from Japan and Korea to the Middle Asia and even the Europe. The dredger will speed up the construction of the bridge tower of the Belt and Road. The construction of south passage of the estuary of Changjiang River will reduce the traffic pressure of the deep-water channel and improve the traffic capacity of the Golden Waterway of Changjiang River, thus, promoting the integration development of the Changjiang River Delta. Meanwhile, such dredgers will play an important part in promoting the development of infrastructures in countries along the Belt and Road thanks to the unlimited voyage capacity in the world.

The successful delivery of such two dredgers fills the blank of designing and manufacturing the intelligent self-propelled drag suction dredger in China, an important step in the designing and manufacturing technology of dredgers in China, contributing to the development of the Belt and Road and Changjiang River Delta.