Improvement of Navigation on the Magdalena River

For a long time the Colombian government has shown interest in the use of the Magdalena inland waterway as an alternative for transport of cargo and passengers over the road. The last few years the issue has gained importance and urgency as a result of trade agreements that are being signed with several countries. 

IMDC was commissioned by NAVELENA - Consorcio as Owner’s Engineer for the project to restore the navigability of the Magdalena River.

This contract will allow navigation on the Magdalena River over a length of 908 km between Barranquilla and Puerto Salgar. Among the works to improve the navigability the 650 km between Barranquilla and Barrancabermeja will have to be dredged and new bank protection in another 256 km will have to be designed. This is expected to triple cargo transported per year from 1.5 to 6 million tons.

The scope of IMDC contract was the technical assistance in the studies and designs to improve navigation on the river Magdalena and the review of the design by AECOM.

To do this IMDC provided a technical team in Colombia that was backup-ed by specialists in the Belgian office carrying out the following tasks:

• Revision and analysis of the predesign verifying that the proposed dredging alternatives meet the contractual requirements and that the presented solutions are viable
• Review of the data of aerial photographs, topography, bathymetry and geotechnical surveys
• Recommendations for improving the navigability of the river
• Review and technical recommendations on the engineering designs, the dredging techniques