Hamad Port was awarded high commendation in the Coastal Dredging Project of the Year category at the inaugural IHS DPC Innovation Awards held recently in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with the participation of a large number of industry experts, ports and shipping companies’ senior officials, maritime organisations and operators of stations.
The IHS DPC Innovation Awards celebrate the sector’s most innovative and forward-thinking projects, which change the industry through new ideas, processes, technology or equipment. It is organised annually by the industry’s leading trade magazine, IHS Dredging & Port Construction, to recognise outstanding innovation and technological contributions made by the dredging and port construction industry.
Hamad Port was shortlisted in three categories out of 15 categories that the annual award celebrates amid “great competition from ports and various industry fields”, according to a press statement. “The commendation from the IHS DPC Innovation Awards comes in recognition of the global standards adopted by Hamad Port and the enhanced infrastructure of the environmentally friendly port technology in the world, which has contributed to strengthening the port’s position not only in the region but also worldwide. It also underscores Qatar’s success in developing mega infrastructure projects in line with the highest international standards,” the statement noted.
The commendation was awarded to Hamad Port for the use of unique systems in the construction and excavation of the port basin, which was built on land in a rare operation of its kind in international ports. With depths of up to 18m and 10km long, Hamad Port’s basin construction took about two and a half years of excavation, during which more than 6,900 tonnes of explosives were used to challenge the drafts – with full commitment to preserving wildlife and marine life – to extract more than 44.5mn cubic metres of dredged material, which was used in other construction activities in the project, resulting in huge savings for the project.
“Thanks to the unlimited support of the government and the great role played by the Ministry of Transport and Communications represented by Mwani Qatar, Hamad Port was able to occupy a prominent position among regional and international ports within a short period of its operation, gaining the confidence of international shipping lines, establishing itself as one of the pivotal ports in the region that is reliable in the development of the international maritime trade,” the statement added.