Portugal’s harbour authority, Docapesca, finally has launched a public tender for dredging work at Faro docks at a target price of €100,000.
The dredging, the first in 27 years, will see 16000m3 of silt removed in an effort to restore the dock area in preparation for the refurbishment of the floating piers used by fishermen.
The dredging also will allow more vessels to access the fuel station.
The notice has been published in Diário da República and covers an area of 1.75 hectares.
Docapesca stated, highlighting the fact that there has been no dredging at the site for nearly three decades, that, "This intervention is essential for the restoration of operating conditions in the interior of the Faro dock and is part of a larger project.”
The chosen company will have two months within which to do the work.
Further to the east in the Ria Formosa, the dredger that sank near the island of Armona yet may be refloated as a new salvage operation is being planned for September .
Engaged in urgent dredging activity, the massive 400-tonne vessel capsized, leaving the crew floundering.
The Maritime Authority gave the owner two days to remove the obstacle to shipping but nothing has happened since an aborted mission to refloat the vessel in January.
The hull broke up in the springtime storms and the expectation is that new flotation balloons from China will give sufficient lift to get the hulk off the seabed.
