Unique ‘shower head’ vessel to help build longest tunnel
March 21, 2024By Seawork Press FP
Neptune Marine
Marine Civils
Share this article
The Spreader Pontoon NP460, built by Neptune Marine for client Femern Link Contractors (FLC), has arrived to help construct the new Fehmarnbelt tunnel between Denmark and Germany. The Fehmarnbelt tunnel is Denmark’s largest infrastructure project and will be the world’s longest immersed tunnel. The tunnel elements will be produced at a specially constructed factory in Rødbyhavn, Denmark, and towed out to the Fehmarnbelt on an ongoing basis. The contractors will immerse the elements one by one and assemble them from the coast and out towards the middle of the belt from the Danish and German sides
Neptune is a specialised supplier of marine solutions in the Netherlands. This unique vessel, the Spreader Pontoon NP460, is equipped with a "shower head" which has been designed to deposit and spread gravel and sand, filling either side of a tunnel trench to encase the tunnel sections. The fill material is sent to the Spreader Pontoon through a pipeline from a suction dredger. Back filling the trench will secure the sections, locking them into place.
The Spreader Pontoon NP460, the latest addition to Femern’s fleet, was towed to Rødbyhavn by Neptune’s EuroTug Neptun 11.
