NQEA wins award for 84m hopper dredger

NQEA Australia has been bestowed with accolades for engineering excellence for its work in building an 84m trailing suction hopper dredger. The dredger has earned both NQEA and the Port of Brisbane Corporation, where it has been deployed since October 2000, the Institution of Engineers Australia ? Queensland Division 2001 Engineering Excellence Award. NQEA also scooped the RW Hawken Award at the annual Engineering Excellence Awards for producing the first Australian-built hopper dredger. NQEA executive director Mark Frye said modularisation of the 2,000t vessel structure contributed to early delivery and allowed launching of the main hull without superstructure at a mass of 1,500t. Significant electrical engineering tasks included generation and distribution of 3,760kW co-ordination of 1,000 input/outputs, application of 2 x 750kW variable frequency drives to control dredge pump speed and application of 1 x 310kW variable speed drive to control bow thruster speed. Other work included power and control of all dredgers actuators/sensors, provision of hotel services and installation of approximately 68,000 km of cable.