Egypt begins test run through new Suez Canal

The 85,000 tonne, 306-metre long ship took two days to transit the canal, starting Thursday, and was bound for Livorno in Italy with a load of cargo from Jeddah. The canal will officially open next week. The New Suez Canal is estimated to jump-start that figure to $15bn by 2023 and reduce navigation time for ships to 11 hours from about 22 hours, making it one of the fastest waterway in the world.

NMDC was the leader of the Challenge Consortium which won the $1.5 billion contract for the project.

Included in the project are Boskalis, Van Oord, National Marine Dredging Company (NMDC), Jan de Nul, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (GLDD) and Dredging worldwide NV.

Called the Suez Canal Corridor, the 72-kilometer new project involves a 37-kilometer new waterway and deepening and expanding the existing 145-year-old Suez Canal along 35 kilometers. However, the project was stuck in limbo for years until being revived at the instigation of president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, according to Mamish.

For the past year or so whenever a canal project is mentioned thoughts turn to the redevelopment of the Panama route and its incredibly impressive feats of engineering.

“To realize this formidable task in record time, we deployed 26 dredgers and 40 additional equipment – an unprecedented number to have been deployed in a single project within a tight schedule of less than 12 months”, said Engineer Yasser Zaghloul, CEO of NMDC and chairman of the Challenge Consortium.

“For this project, we leveraged our extensive expertise of over decades of dredging and marine construction gained from our association with major projects in the UAE and overseas”.

“During some months, we even outpaced the highest global record of eight-million cubic metres per month… dredging more than 40-million cubic metres”.

Mameesh said: “This is the first trial crossing but it will be followed by more trials”.

Egypt is gearing up for the official inauguration of the new channel on Thursday, August 6, 2015 at an event that will draw the participation of heads of states and official delegations from around the world.