Vertimientos, Cuba

Backfilling and beach regeration works at Varadero and los Cayos

Backfilling

Tipping, Cuba

Backfilling

Tipping, Cuba

The trailing suction hopper dredger Dravo Costa Dorada extracted the sand from the borrow areas, carrying the material used to regenerate all the beaches onshore via 1,700 m of floating pipe.

A Multicat was used to tow the floating line, fit and change anchors and deliver to the dredger all the necessary supplies.

Advantages of floating pipe compared with a sinker line and land pipe:

Fast mobilisation and assembly, thanks to the use of bolts rather than having to weld and cut and sinker line.
Always working at the optimal distance for pumping.
Only 200 m of the beach needs to be occupied as the work area (with a sinker and land pipe the whole length of the beach is used). This is very important for tourist hotels.
Easy displacement from one beach to another.

General details

Location: Cayos Norte de Villa Clara, Cayo Santa María and Cayo Las Brujas and Cayo Coco in Ciego de Ávila province (Cuba)
Client: Cuban government, via Ingeniería Gamma Inversiones S.A.
Completion period: 25 August 2017–10 March 2018
Resources used: Trailing suction hopper dredger DRAVO Costa Dorada

Scale of the works

Volumes of material dredged and tipped during the project: