Optimization of mechanical dredging operations for sediment remediation

Sediment remediation involves restricted activities in the dredging process in order to minimize environmental risk. Operational constraints add significant capital cost to the overall project. This paper presents an example of the special conditions for a typical environmental dredging operation. REMSIM software, which simulates the sediment remediation processes, aids in planning for environmental dredging by reducing uncertainties in cost and performance estimations. The scow and bucket capacities, number of scows, and effective working time are parameters that improve productivity significantly as they are increased. The purpose of this paper is to help dredging contractors use their navigational dredging knowledge base to estimate costs, performance, and equipment selection for future environmental dredging projects where contaminant dispersion is a concern. REMSIM is used to obtain cost and productivity comparisons between environmental dredging and typical navigational dredging situations. Equipment and performance parameters can be adjusted in order to compensate for environmental dredging limitations while improving productivity and minimizing costs.