The MoD have awarded a £30m contract to Westminster Boskalis for dredging the 4-5 mile approach channel of Portsmouth in order to accommodate the larger QE carriers. They will use a combination of trailing suction hopper dredgers and backhoe dredgers to remove in excess of 3 million cubic metres of sand, gravel and hard clay.
Work commences in the second half of 2015 for 8 months.
A similar project in Southampton for Associated British Ports removed 5 million cubic metres for £40m, about 20% cheaper per cubic metre, just for comparison, although of course, a direct comparison cannot be made for any number of reasons.
Think Defence 
If Boris moves fast, that’s the first few feet of his third runway, right there!
I am in awe of machines like these. They may just be giant vacuum cleaners… but they’re giant vacuum cleaners! At sea! As usual with these things, the most interesting bit is underneath, where you can’t see it, but it’s just one more example, alongside heavy lifters, Jack-Up Vessels and sea launch platforms that prove that much of the most impressive engineering takes place at sea, where most people never get to see it!
/end fanboy mode
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@MSR
Like the recent post on dismantling the top section of one of the Brent rigs. Lifting 24,000 tonnes in one piece onto a barge in the middle of the North Sea. That’s 3 T45’s ( not sure how many double decker buses or elephants TD 😉 I suspect we will see plenty of COTS offshore engineering solutions in the updated ship to shore logistics post.
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1 Type 45 = 3.4 Olympic swimming pools filled with 12,750,000,000 cubic cm of Lynx deodorant.
@Monkey, where’s your little self portrait gone? I miss oggling your moody apish mug. We need a bit of colour on this new-look grey and grey TD.co.uk!
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Great photograph. Hopefully the real thing will show an equivalent number of F-35’s.
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USMC versions, yes.
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I hope they use those 3 million cubic metres wisely. Perhaps restoring damaged North Sea coasts perhaps?
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What is the point when there are no aircraft to fly off them? lol
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