Caparica Beaches, Beach Nourishment

In 2019, Rohde Nielsen was awarded a Beach Nourishment project by the client “APL-Administracão do Porto APA – Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente”.

The project comprised:

Dredging 1,000,000 m3 of sand available in the access channel to the port of Lisbon, and pumping it to shore using a sinker line of 700m plus 300m along the beach. This was executed by TSHD Njord R, with a duration of up to 60 days. Rohde Nielsen completed the job in merely 41 days (45 including mob and demob).

The project started with a critical operation of towing the sinker line used in a similar project in Figueira da Foz. The trip of over 100Nm required the skills of our crew on Rimfaxe R and the goodwill of “Eolo”, god of winds, as summer conditions in Portugal weren’t very favourable.

The client had imposed a number of operational restrictions as nourishing operations had to be performed during the high season, and Caparica is a very busy recreational area for Lisbon inhabitants. Hence, sinker line was required to minimize impact on recreational navigation in the area but also to permit the undisturbed operation of rescue jet-skis. Another constraint was that, to avoid segregation of different grain sizes during the pumping, total pumping distance was limited to 1,000 meters.

Addionally, to minimize impact on beach exploitation without compromising safety, the contractor could only close stretches of coast limited by the existing groins, and no longer than 300m. For this reason, one of the challenges of this project was the required 9 replacements of the sinker line position.

Location: Almada – Caparica, Portuga
Scope: 1,000,000 m3
Client: APL-Administracão do Porto APA – Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente
Year: 2019

The fleet that made it possible

Njord R
Rimfaxe R

Njord R

Download specifications

Hopper capacity: 6,000m3
Length overall: 111.30m
Breadth: 19.40m
Draught loaded: 7.00m
Draught unloaded: 3.80m
Dredging depth: 35.00/75.00m

Rimfaxe R

Download specifications

Length overall: 23.35m
Breadth: 8.00m
Draught: 2.10m
Main engine: 2x634kW
Speed: 10.5kn

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