General description of the project
Since the enlargement of the Panama Canal, much larger vessels are entering the Caribbean waters. As a consequence of this improvement, the Grand Port Maritime de Guadeloupe is aiming at a significant expansion of their port, allowing large ships with draughts up to 16 meters and with capacities reaching 16,000 TEU to enter the port. Jan De Nul won the contract for the dredging of the entrance channel and turning circle and the offshore disposal of all material in an offshore disposal area.

Environmetal Operations
In the direct vicinity of the work areas, there are several vulnerable ecosystems (mangroves, coral reefs, etc.), harbouring a variety of (endangered) species (e.g. the leatherback sea turtle). Therefore, an intensive Environmental Monitoring Program will be executed to minimise the impact of the works on the present ecosystems. In order to assure the water quality turbidity will be closely monitored before and during the works near the offshore disposal sites.

The turbidity around the 4 offshore disposal sites will be monitored at six fixed locations using stand-alone Observator OMC-7006 data buoys equipped with the OMC-045-III GPRS logger, GPS and solar panels.

The newly developed Observator NEP5000 Analite turbidity probe, with integrated pressure sensor and copper alloy housing to prevent bio-fouling, will be installed at 2m and 10m depth and measurements will be taken every 10minutes. The system will be capable of sending trough all data in real time to the shore where it is processed and publishing online. Automatic alarms can be defined to compare the measured water quality against the defined trigger levels and assure a minimum impact.

Analite NEP5000 Turbidity Probe