By: OrePulse

President Daniel Chapo launched a $150 million dredging project at the Port of Maputo on October 12, opening works to deepen and widen the Mozambican port's main access channel so it can handle larger vessels.

The project is being carried out by China Road and Bridge Corporation under the investment program of Maputo Port Development Company, the port's concessionaire. Maputo Port Development Company, which took over management of the port in 2003, has had its concession extended to run until 2058, and the dredging works fall within the broader investment program tied to that concession. The dredging work is expected to take about 12 months and will remove more than 21 million cubic meters of material from the seabed.

Once complete, the channel's maximum depth will increase from 14.4 meters to about 15.3 meters. The straight sections will widen from roughly 110 meters to 210 meters, and the bends from 150 meters to 295 meters. The upgrade also includes a new maneuvering basin about 660 meters in diameter.

The redesigned channel is intended to accommodate vessels up to 366 meters long, with capacity for as many as 14,000 twenty-foot equivalent units, depending on draught, tide and other operating conditions. That figure describes the size of vessel the channel is designed to admit rather than a guaranteed operating capacity, given the stated dependence on those variable conditions. Navigation simulations for the new channel dimensions were carried out in Denmark, with Mozambican pilots taking part in the exercises before the works began.

China Road and Bridge Corporation is deploying seven vessels for the dredging: three suction dredgers, a cutter dredger assigned to areas of more compacted seabed material, two transport barges and a multipurpose support vessel. Royal HaskoningDHV, a Dutch consultancy, prepared the environmental impact assessment for the works and will monitor their environmental effects, though it is not carrying out the dredging itself, which remains the responsibility of China Road and Bridge Corporation.

The dredging extends a series of channel upgrades carried out since Maputo Port Development Company took over management of the port. The channel's depth was about 9.4 meters in 2003 and reached about 11 meters by 2011. A project completed in 2016 and 2017 brought it to its current 14.4 meters, the level the new works are now set to deepen further.

The project also includes a training component for personnel from Eduardo Mondlane University, a nautical school and EMODRAGA, Mozambique's state dredging company. EMODRAGA's involvement is limited to training and knowledge-transfer activities rather than a contracting role in the dredging operations themselves. Separately, fishing communities near the port are to receive buoys, navigational signage and life jackets as part of measures associated with the project.

At the launch, Chapo said infrastructure investment of this kind needs to be matched by more efficient administrative procedures, border processes and logistics coordination, since delays on land can offset the time gained at sea.

Maputo serves Mozambique's own trade as well as cargo moving to and from South Africa, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Botswana and other markets in the region. The dredging project coincides with other capacity expansions under way at the port. DP World Maputo's container terminal is being expanded toward about 650,000 twenty-foot equivalent units a year, the Matola Coal Terminal's capacity is planned to rise to about 12 million tonnes a year, and ore-handling capacity at the port is set to reach 20.6 million tonnes a year through a separate investment program.

The dredging project and the related terminal expansions at DP World Maputo, the Matola Coal Terminal and the ore-handling facilities form part of the port's broader current investment program, alongside the channel works that President Chapo launched on October 12.