RICHARDS BAY COAL CARRIER SALVAGE TO TAKE 550 DAYS
By: Mercury Reporter
2014-01-02
It will take salvagers 550 days to remove the remaining forward and mid sections of coal carrier the MV Smart from just outside Richards Bay’s harbor entrance – an operation that will include the dumping of the remaining coal payload from the wreck.
The Smart, fully laden with 150 000 tons of coal and 1 900 tons of fuel, ran aground in rough seas in August, hitting a sandbank close to the port. The ship then broke in two.
The aft section was towed out to sea and scuppered in October.
“Wreck removal operations for the forward and mid sections of the Smart have commenced, with the tenders awarded to Titan Maritime and T & T Salvage.” Said SA Maritime Safety Authority spokesman Nigel Campbell.
“The fuel and stern sections have already been successfully removed, but the removal of the remainder of the wreck presented unique challenges.”
“The operation will commence with the removal of the remaining cargo of coal and disposed in an approved offshore location.”
Once this is completed, part of the wreck will be refloated and scuppered at sea. The remaining sections of the ship, which are badly damaged, will first be cut into smaller parts.
The operation will be supervised by the Department of Environmental Affairs, the Maritime Safety Authority and Richards Bay Port Authority.
By: Mercury Reporter
2014-01-02
It will take salvagers 550 days to remove the remaining forward and mid sections of coal carrier the MV Smart from just outside Richards Bay’s harbor entrance – an operation that will include the dumping of the remaining coal payload from the wreck.
The Smart, fully laden with 150 000 tons of coal and 1 900 tons of fuel, ran aground in rough seas in August, hitting a sandbank close to the port. The ship then broke in two.
The aft section was towed out to sea and scuppered in October.
“Wreck removal operations for the forward and mid sections of the Smart have commenced, with the tenders awarded to Titan Maritime and T & T Salvage.” Said SA Maritime Safety Authority spokesman Nigel Campbell.
“The fuel and stern sections have already been successfully removed, but the removal of the remainder of the wreck presented unique challenges.”
“The operation will commence with the removal of the remaining cargo of coal and disposed in an approved offshore location.”
Once this is completed, part of the wreck will be refloated and scuppered at sea. The remaining sections of the ship, which are badly damaged, will first be cut into smaller parts.
The operation will be supervised by the Department of Environmental Affairs, the Maritime Safety Authority and Richards Bay Port Authority.
This article was published in the Fever Online:
BEACH POOLS SAVE THE FESTIVE SEASON
By Seton Thompson
Photo : Supplied
2013-01-09 23:00
The Pennington tidal pool at high tide during the holiday season. The access gate is mid-way along the right-hand wall.
In a holiday season dominated by bad news and poor service delivery in many respects, the day was saved by the last-minute intervention of local citizen James Tucker and his company T&T Marine, which worked around the clock dredging out the sand in the five beach pools.
A variety of other locals jumped on the subsequent band wagon but the Umdoni council community services department, which sealed the deal with T&T, and its chairman Councillor Edwyn Baptie and beach manager Melvin Patchai, deserve mention.
Mtwalume’s ratepayer association leader André van Rooyen hailed the availability of the pool in that town as a “very welcome surprise”.
Baptie arranged for the access gate to be replaced at Pennington, but the absence of a special nut hindered the use of that facility, which should be resolved soon.
BEACH POOLS SAVE THE FESTIVE SEASON
By Seton Thompson
Photo : Supplied
2013-01-09 23:00
The Pennington tidal pool at high tide during the holiday season. The access gate is mid-way along the right-hand wall.
In a holiday season dominated by bad news and poor service delivery in many respects, the day was saved by the last-minute intervention of local citizen James Tucker and his company T&T Marine, which worked around the clock dredging out the sand in the five beach pools.
A variety of other locals jumped on the subsequent band wagon but the Umdoni council community services department, which sealed the deal with T&T, and its chairman Councillor Edwyn Baptie and beach manager Melvin Patchai, deserve mention.
Mtwalume’s ratepayer association leader André van Rooyen hailed the availability of the pool in that town as a “very welcome surprise”.
Baptie arranged for the access gate to be replaced at Pennington, but the absence of a special nut hindered the use of that facility, which should be resolved soon.
This article was published in the Witness newspaper:
Camps Drift canal de-silted
23 Dec 2011
The Camps Drift canal has finally been de-silted, which not only helps Msunduzi retain its status as a top canoeing center, but also reduces the risk of flooding.
The task was undertaken by the KwaZulu-Natal Canoeing Union (KZNCU) using a R1-million payment it received from the national lottery.
This was more than a year after the municipality cancelled a R12.8 million tender which it had awarded to a politically-connected contractor, Planet Waves, which failed to complete the job in the requisite time.
The canoe union took just a month to complete the work started by Planet Waves. There was an outcry when the municipality awarded the tender to Planet Waves, owned by former KZN Agriculture Department head Dr Jabulani Mjwara, whose department was mired in allegations of maladministration during his tenure.
Apart from showing that the municipal contract could have been done cheaper and a lot more quickly, the trash dredged up proved an eye-opener.
Dave Still of the canoeing union said the large T&T Marine dredger became a familiar sight at Camps Drift after it moved on the site on November 9. Three weeks was spent preparing the disposal pond and putting their equipment together. Dredging started on December 4 and was completed on December 20.
Still said during that time 10 000 m³ of silt was removed at a rate of on average 625 m³/day. Planet Waves, by comparison, worked for over a year and removed an estimated 90 000 m³, an average rate of 225 m³/day.
Both operations were impeded by the sheer volume of trash in the river. Still said that in the current process silt was pumped to the silt pond, and the trash loaded on a boat and ferried to shore, where it was collected by the Duzi Umngeni Conservation Trust (DUCT).
He added that last night, at the traditional Christmas dice race, paddlers were able to paddle the full course without encountering the energy-sapping mud flats on the bend opposite the clubhouse, which had been in place for years.
When the municipality developed the Camps Drift canal, it recognised that regular de-silting would have to be done every eight or more years as a flood control measure.
Still said that if not kept dredged, Camps Drift would eventually silt up completely and this would increase the chances of flooding of the commercial and industrial properties at Camps Drift. He added that canoeing is an important part of the city’s attraction and that a picture of Duzi paddlers is among the selection of images on the Msunduzi Municipality’s website.
Camps Drift is regularly used for training by some of South Africa’s top paddlers. It is an asset that the city needs to maintain to keep its image as a sporting capital and the home of canoeing, Still said.
23 Dec 2011
The Camps Drift canal has finally been de-silted, which not only helps Msunduzi retain its status as a top canoeing center, but also reduces the risk of flooding.
The task was undertaken by the KwaZulu-Natal Canoeing Union (KZNCU) using a R1-million payment it received from the national lottery.
This was more than a year after the municipality cancelled a R12.8 million tender which it had awarded to a politically-connected contractor, Planet Waves, which failed to complete the job in the requisite time.
The canoe union took just a month to complete the work started by Planet Waves. There was an outcry when the municipality awarded the tender to Planet Waves, owned by former KZN Agriculture Department head Dr Jabulani Mjwara, whose department was mired in allegations of maladministration during his tenure.
Apart from showing that the municipal contract could have been done cheaper and a lot more quickly, the trash dredged up proved an eye-opener.
Dave Still of the canoeing union said the large T&T Marine dredger became a familiar sight at Camps Drift after it moved on the site on November 9. Three weeks was spent preparing the disposal pond and putting their equipment together. Dredging started on December 4 and was completed on December 20.
Still said during that time 10 000 m³ of silt was removed at a rate of on average 625 m³/day. Planet Waves, by comparison, worked for over a year and removed an estimated 90 000 m³, an average rate of 225 m³/day.
Both operations were impeded by the sheer volume of trash in the river. Still said that in the current process silt was pumped to the silt pond, and the trash loaded on a boat and ferried to shore, where it was collected by the Duzi Umngeni Conservation Trust (DUCT).
He added that last night, at the traditional Christmas dice race, paddlers were able to paddle the full course without encountering the energy-sapping mud flats on the bend opposite the clubhouse, which had been in place for years.
When the municipality developed the Camps Drift canal, it recognised that regular de-silting would have to be done every eight or more years as a flood control measure.
Still said that if not kept dredged, Camps Drift would eventually silt up completely and this would increase the chances of flooding of the commercial and industrial properties at Camps Drift. He added that canoeing is an important part of the city’s attraction and that a picture of Duzi paddlers is among the selection of images on the Msunduzi Municipality’s website.
Camps Drift is regularly used for training by some of South Africa’s top paddlers. It is an asset that the city needs to maintain to keep its image as a sporting capital and the home of canoeing, Still said.
