Construction, EU – Baltic States, Lithuania, Port, Transport

The agreement between the Port Authority and Van Oord was signed last year, on October 12. The agreement, which has a value of LTL 131 million (EUR 40 million), foresees the deepening of the port from its 10th berth to the so-called sea ferry from 13 to 14.5 meters and the widening of the same areas from 125 to 150 meters. The company has brought its dredgers and repaired them in the Western Shipyard. They planned to start their works in February this year, reports LETA/ELTA.

"We have agreed to extend the deadline because another company working in the port, Rohde Nielsen, had been working on bars, interfering with the working area of Van Oord. Van Oord promised to start their works in March. Later on, they asked to prolong the deadline until March 24. Later, they made a similar request to prolong it to April 1," – explained Klaipeda State Sea Port Authority Director Eugenijus Gentvilas.

However, even the 1st of April is not the last deadline. Van Oord asked to postpone the deadline yet another time to April 21.

"We cannot agree with the fact that the contractor always postpones the beginning of works, while the weather conditions are favourable. I cannot guarantee about the current situation of this company," – considered Gentvilas. At the end of March, the Port Authority has made bathymetric measures of the bars. The Port Authority is going to follow the similar path of sanctions, which was applied in 2009 for Klaipeda Hydromechanics. The contractor will receive technical tasks and if the company does not complete the works on time, the sanctions will be applied. After the technical tasks are presented, the works should start in 14 days.

Van Oord should start the deepening of Klaipeda port no later than April 10-12. According to the agreement, the deepening has to be finished in 12 months. All in all, the amount of dredged soil will be 3 million cubic meters of soil. Why the company postpones the beginning of works? One of the reasons is that the company brought old dredging equipment, which needs more repairs than was previously planned. The repairs of dredgers Utrecht and Geopotes 15 have already cost LTL 7 million (EUR 2 million), and the repairs of excavator-dredger Goliath alone cost LTL 4 million (EUR 1.16 million). Another reason for this is that Van Oord has a lot of orders and does not manage to do everything on time. Van Oord works in the port of Rotterdam, in its Masvlakte 2 part; the company does land-filling operations. Van Oord, this year alone, has signed three work agreements worth of 40 million EUR each. The company will work not only in the port of Rotterdam, but also in the United Arab Emirates.

The company has a lot of equipment. The website claims that the company has 25 dredgers, two of which, Utrecht and Geopotes 15 will work in Klaipeda. Also, the company has ten excavator-dredgers, one of which, Goliath, works in Klaipeda. Van Oord has a technical park of 77 ships.