JEDDAH: The ongoing infrastructure construction programs that are under way across the Kingdom necessitate the building of some huge pieces of equipment.

Already the owners of the largest fleet of integrated commercial vessels in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, Huta Marine Works Ltd., the Jeddah-based marine engineering company, have commissioned two mammoth machines to tackle the dredging challenges posed by the new and established port and coastline projects including the new King Abdullah Economic City.

Technically ships, the dredger and back-hoe are unprepossessing blocky barges designed on the premise that function dictates form. The cutter-suction dredger is the largest in its class in the world. Called “Huta 9” for internal record keeping, it proudly carries “Al-Sakab” as its registered name.

Prior to the acquisition of Al Sakab, Huta Marine already owned a considerable fleet of dredgers, associated vessels and floating equipment which were employed on numerous major projects involving commercial channels, harbors and docks along with private marinas and jetties.

With a hull length of 100 meters, a beam of 20 meters and dead weight of 950 tons, Al-Sakab carries and accommodates a crew of 28 and has its own on-board desalination and sewage plants. At the business end, the massive cutter revolving at 1000 rpm can cut through the hardest materials encountered in the Middle East. This is backed up by total installed power of 22,000hp and on-board fuel bunkers with sufficient capacity for 340 hours (over two weeks) of continuous operation.

Accompanying the prodigious output of the dredger is a specially designed marine back-hoe. No conversion from a land-based model mounted on a barge, the Backacter was designed specifically for marine operations. It is formidable.

With ultra-high capacity hydraulic cylinders and a monobloc construction of the lifting and dredging arm, it delivers dredging forces about 2.5 times those of a “classic” excavator conversion. Although it can operate with a vast 40 cubic meter bucket, with a 25 cubic meter bucket, it can operate down to a depth of 19 meters with penetration and breakout forces of 205 tons — the best in the industry.

With different bucket configurations, it can reach down to a whopping 33 meters. This monster is capable of extracting about 1000 cubic meters of heavy soil in just 45 minutes.

Currently nearing completion, these two mighty machines are due to join the fleet of Huta Marine Works Ltd. as part of the army of mechanical labor behind the development of Saudi Arabia’s new infrastructure.