Eastern Shipbuilding Group has cut the first steel for a new trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) ordered by Weeks Marine (WMI) of Cranford, New Jersey.
The Royal IHC-designed R.B. Weeks will be the second dredger to be built by Eastern for WMI after Magdalen which was delivered in 2017.
The new dredger will have a length of 108.5 metres, a beam of 24 metres, a hopper capacity of 6,540 cubic metres, accommodations for 26 people, and two General Electric 16V250 IMO Tier III-compliant main engines. Delivery is scheduled for early 2023.