MAUREEN OF DART
Dartmouth, Devon
CLIENT SECTOR: Harbour Authority
PROJECT DURATION: 2 Weeks
TONNES PROCESSED: 9 Loads
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The Maureen of Dart was a 20 meter long vessel and served as a British diving boat for many years before unfortunately sinking in the River Dart. This posed a hazard to the environment and potential navigational hazardous as well.
CHALLENGES
The Maureen of Dart was moored in a deep part of the river, in 3-4 meters of water. As a result we had to work with the lowest tides possible to ensure we could reach the depth required to remove the bottom of the vessel and keel. As with all marine work, operations were subject to weather conditions and tidal changes, which were planned into the works.
PROJECT SCOPE
The 20 meter boat was of wooden structure but contained many large metal components, the project would require us to utilise a range of machine attachments on our long-reach machine to dismantle the sections of keel, engine housing and hull. As with many vessels there are a number of hazardous materials that need careful handling and removal, this included fuel, oils and batteries which were all brought back to our Newton Abbot Waste Transfer Station for disposal.
OUTCOMES
The unfortunate sinking of the Maureen of Dart caused a navigational issue along the River Dart. We were able to successfully remove the vessel, clearing the waterways and preventing a potential hazard from the underwater vessel. With all marine works, our top priority is environmental preservation, a floating boom was deployed at the early stages which aided us in keeping pollutants contained before removal from the river and safe disposal at our site.
OUR APPROACH
We mobilised our fleet and resources further up river in Totnes to allow us access onto a barge which then travelled down the river to the site of the sunken vessel to begin works. We operated 2 barges, one with the machine and equipment on and a second with multiple 40 yard bins that could easily be transported to land, utilising boatyard lifts to remove bins from the barge and exchange with our fleet of trucks to maintain a consistent flow of removal. We deployed a floating boom to contain pollutants and began removing the vessel in large sections, our long-reach machine was then able to reach the depths of the river bed and commence a sweeping operation to remove smaller pieces.