“Here in Qatar, we are dredging an access channel to a new port for the Coast Guard. There are three unique conditions: the substratum is harder than we have ever encountered before; the temperature here can climb to more than 50° C, and we are working under time pressure.

To complete this project successfully, we are demanding the most from our equipment and our employees. The dilemma is: how do we do that while ensuring we still show respect for the people and their safety, but also for the deadline and the budget. As early as preparatory phase, we realized that the sense of team spirit among the crew would be the key. For that reason, we invited the crew of the Taurus and Phoenix in Papendrecht for an extensive NINA Startup Meeting, combined with training on the cutter simulator for dredging the extremely hard rocks. This has generated a great deal of useful input, such as the idea to install a sun shade above the location where we change cutter teeth. Beat the heat!

As with any project, good planning is crucial. After all, we want to prevent people from taking a shortcut or from falling back into their old behaviors due to time pressure. For that reason, we start each morning with an extensive operational meeting, with safety and the priority list high on the agenda. That information is shared during the progress meetings in the units. And we continuously stress that, under these conditions, we must accept that some things are going to take longer. No matter what happens: Safety First.”

By Daan van de Zande, Dredging Expert, The Coast Guard Base project, Qatar