Dredging is used for various purposes, including maintaining waterways, restoring beaches, and preserving wildlife habitats. The dredging process removes trash, sediment, and other materials from the bottom of lakes, rivers, oceans, and other bodies of water.
Dredging services near me can also help protect coastlines from erosion and make beach towns more attractive to vacationers. But how does it do this?
Removing Trash and Debris
Removing trash and debris from lakes, ponds, and rivers can make these waterways safer for swimming and fishing. It can also help reduce eutrophication, the excessive amount of nutrients in a lake that leads to the overgrowth of plants and oxygen deprivation for animals.
Dredging services can improve and preserve the ecology of a lake by getting rid of sludge, sediment build-up, trash, sewage accumulation, dead fish, and other contaminants. They can also increase the depth of a lake or pond to support boats and other water-based activities and prevent flooding.
In addition, dredging services can clear the mud and silt in harbors, marinas, piers, and underwater tunnels. Dredging equipment is specially designed to remove large amounts of material in a short amount of time. The dredged material is then moved to an upland processing area for further treatment. This can include dewatering, separation, solidification, thermal desorption, and incineration. The material may then be transported to a landfill or for beneficial reuse.
Restoring Beaches
Dredging companies are also often hired to remove dangerous materials from waterways, reducing the exposure of humans and marine organisms to toxic substances. These pollutants can include sewage, sediments from chemical spills, and accumulated wastes from industrial processes. These professionals can safely and precisely remove contaminants from specific areas without disturbing the rest of the waterway’s ecosystem by using suction cutter dredgers.
Sedimentation is a natural process that causes silt and sand to accumulate in channels, harbors, and other bodies of water over time. When these materials build up too much, they can reduce the depth of navigation channels and prevent ships from passing through. Dredging services can help maintain or increase the depth of port channels and anchorages to keep them safe for commercial vessels.
In addition, these dredging companies can help reclaim land and restore degraded habitats. Civil engineering uses dredged sediments to fill low-lying areas, support coastal construction projects, and restore the ecological integrity of beaches and other seaside habitats.
Mining for Precious Metals
Dredging services are also used for mining purposes, namely to mine precious metals in seafloor nodules and hydrothermal vents. In addition, dredging is used to gather construction materials for projects such as building bridges, dams, and piers.
Dredges work by lowering a rotating cutter head into bodies of water to loosen sediment and debris, which is then sucked up through a tube for disposal. Dredging can also level the seabed for foundations of oil and gas platforms, monopiles for windmills at sea, and tunnels and pipelines for offshore energy.
Ports rely on dredging to deepen and widen their waterways so larger cargo ships can dock without running aground. However, this can also resuspend sediments and increase turbidity. Reducing light levels can impact photosynthetic marine organisms like corals, shellfish, and algae. As a result, the dredging process has pros and cons that must be weighed carefully for each project. The bottom line is that dredging can boost economic development, aid flood control, and protect and preserve marine habitats and ecosystems.
Preventing Flooding
When toxic material spills or other disasters happen, dredging services help clean up the mess. This can include removing trash, debris, decaying vegetation, sludge, and other contaminants that could contaminate water supplies or harm aquatic ecosystems.
Dredging companies also work to reclaim land. They use the sand and other sediment they suck up to create new land or fill areas that need more earth, such as industrial projects, airports, seaports, canals, and dams.
They are also used to maintain navigation channels, ensuring that boats and large ships can pass through the waterways safely. For this, they use a type of dredge called a suction cutter dredge that works like a vacuum cleaner to remove the build-up of sand and silt that can occur on the bottom of rivers, lakes, or canals. This prevents vessels from getting stuck and stranded. It also helps reduce sand and silt accumulation that may interfere with the operation of docks or ports and improves the quality of marine habitats.
