Groningen Seaports continues the cooperation with a Finnish high-technology company VRT Finland to ensure the full operational capacity and extended life-cycle of its ports, offshore wind hubs, terminals and other industrial sites. VRT and Groningen Seaports continue their collaboration with new port inspections at the end of January, covering extensively over 20 km of underwater structures.

In summer 2017, Groningen Seaports was interested to find a partner that could provide innovative solutions to monitor the condition of underwater structures, which are often left invisible with traditional inspection methods. For the busy port region, well-managed and proactive construction, maintenance and asset management is important for providing risk-free and efficient service to all port clients. Continuing the cooperation established already in 2017, 20 kilometres of structures in Delfzijl and Eemshaven ports will be surveyed with the innovative multibeam technology of the Finnish company VRT Finland Oy during the inspections starting in January 2018.

With VRT’s inspections collecting data with a multibeam sonar and a survey vessel from both under and above water simultaneously, Groningen Seaports can utilise the possibilities of the latest Finnish technology to obtain clear and detailed survey data without the inspections causing any downtime to the normal day-to-day operations.

“VRT’s inspections are a basis for our maintenance. It is an economical way of mapping our entire area. We have chosen VRT because they can carry out both the inspections above and under water simultaneously”, says Henk Blaauw, Manager Projects & Asset management, Groningen Seaports. “On the basis of the results, we can also carry out further targeted inspections by divers, which provides us with a full picture of the existing situation”, Henk Blaauw continues.

The detailed 3D data delivered to Groningen Seaports through VRT BIM online-tool provides the port authority crucial information that is needed to support proactive asset integrity management, and long cooperation with VRT allows long-term monitoring of the ports’ underwater assets. The processed and interpreted 3D data can be utilised to plan construction and possible maintenance activities more accurately, which ensures the high-quality service in Groningen ports by extending the life-cycle of the structures.

“We make the invisible underwater structures visible. Our inspections offer a fast, safe and cost-efficient way of getting accurate information about the condition of the structures. We help our customers to utilise the results in construction, maintenance and asset management”, explains Mikko Kolehmainen, VP Business Development, VRT Finland.

VRT Finland Ltd
VRT Finland Ltd. is a Finnish high-tech company founded in 2010 by two civil engineers specialised in underwater structural surveys using multibeam technology. VRT helps customers in the Nordic countries, Germany, the Netherlands and UK in utilising 3D data in maintenance and asset management. The company provides added value to ports, bridges, pipelines, oil terminals and actors in the energy sector by digitising underwater infrastructures.  VRT is an international growth-company currently employing over 20 experts of different areas.

Overview port of Eemshaven