UK-headquartered construction group S Walsh & Sons has ordered a new pusher tug for its marine operations in the London area
Walsh has contracted Damen Shipyards Group to deliver a CS2010-type tug for its fleet operating on the river Thames.
Concordia Damen will deliver this tug in Q3 2020. Its hull will be taken from Damen’s own stock and outfitted for Walsh’s requirements for pushing barges along the Thames, including under London’s many bridges.
This CS2010 tug is part of Walsh’s expansion plans for its River Thames fleet, said managing director Joe Gifford. “It will provide us with the capability and versatility to meet the needs of complex infrastructure projects such as London’s Tideway,” he said.
CS2010 provides Walsh “with more capacity to shift large volumes of bulk materials into and out of London by the most sustainable means possible” Mr Gifford explained.
Walsh will employ this tug after delivery on the Tideway scheme to help move more than a million tonnes of spoil and materials along the Thames.
The £4.2Bn (US$5.7Bn) Thames Tideway Tunnel project is a major infrastructure project to build a 25-km super-sewer under the Thames to have a positive environmental impact on the river and its surrounds. It will complete a conduit for waste from west London to a processing centre in Becton. Around 4M tonnes of material will be transported by river during the tunnel’s construction.
Concordia Damen designed this vessel for operations on inland waterways and connecting to inland shipping barges.
CS2010 has azimuthing thrusters for high levels of manoeuvrability. Its wheelhouse is fitted to a column that can be raised or lowered as required, for better visibility and safety or to lower when this pusher tug passes under bridges.
It will join a multi-purpose vessel, ordered by Walsh from Damen Shipyards in February 2019, that was an adapted Damen-designed Multi Cat 1908 vessel with an overall length of 19 m.
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