DARWIN, NORTHERN TERRITORY
Dredging approximately 700,000m³ from the Darwin Marine Supply Base
Hall Contracting was engaged by the Northern Territory State Government to undertake dredging of the Darwin Marine Base approach channel, swing basin and berth.
The project involved dredging approximately 700,000m³ of siltstone cutter suction dredge Eastern Aurora.
However, soon after works commenced, it became apparent that the excavation included large amounts of sandstone with a UCS 15 to 40 MPa and a very large quartz reef with strengths exceeding 60 MPa. Hall successfully used Eastern Aurora to remove most of the sandstone. To remove very hard sandstone and quartz reef, Hall engaged backhoe dredge Gungner –a 300-tonne machine owned by RN Dredging – to pre-rip the material before Eastern Aurora pumped it ashore.
