Its main advantage is its ability to dredge a wide range of materials, including debris and soft, weathered or fractured rocks. Backhoe dredger – A backhoe dredger is based on the giant land-based backhoe excavator that is mounted at one end of a spud-rigged pontoon. The dredged material which has been loosened from the sea-bed is sucked up and transported further as a mixture (solid material and water) using centrifugal pumps. Hydraulic excavating is done with special water jests in cohesionless soils such as silt, sand and gravel. The dredged material is excavated and removed using mechanical means such as grabs, buckets, cutter heads or scoops. Mechanical excavating is applied to cohesive soils. There are two methods of dredging: mechanical excavating and hydraulic excavating. Maintenance dredging is now only a basic task, while other fields are growing in demand much faster: creating new land for port and industrial development trenching, backfilling and protection work for offshore pipelines, coastal outfall pipelines and for cables laid on the sea bed environmental dredging and clean-up of contaminated sediments replenishment of beaches and coastlines, not only for coastal protection, but also for recreational uses. One of the applications meets the need to maintain minimum depths in canals and harbours by removing mud, sludge, gravel and rocks. Dredging is a displacement of soil, carried out under water.

Small maintenance dredges