Behind The Project: Keeping Transnet’s Dredging Fleet Moving

The Challenge

Dredging vessels take a beating. Constant exposure to seawater, heavy mechanical loads, and round-the-clock operation means steelwork — handrails, hopper doors, pipework, access platforms — wears down fast. When it fails, it’s not a paperwork problem; it’s a safety and downtime problem, on a vessel that can’t simply be pulled off- line for long.

That’s the environment our team stepped into.

The Work

MV Isandlwana — Port of East London Over 34 metres of corroded hopper-side handrails and 10 cylinder supports along the hopper walkway had reached the end of their working life. Our team removed the damaged sections, fabricated and installed new steelwork — flat bar stanchions, round bar infills, top rails, kick plates — and reinstated the protective coating before final inspection and handover.

MV Ilembe — Port of Durban A defective 350mm STP jet pipe needed replacing without disrupting vessel operations. That meant precise site measurement, careful removal of the old section, welding under controlled hot-work conditions, and coating reinstatement on the heat-affected areas — all coordinated around the vessel’s access constraints.

Dredger Hopper & Reclaim Doors — Port of Durban Heavy steel door components — plates, hinge assemblies, pins, bushes, lifting lugs — needed inspection, repair, and realignment. Replacement pins and bushes were specified in high-strength alloy steel (42CrMo4 and 20MnV6 equivalents) to match the mechanical demands of the equipment.

Why It Matters

Marine steelwork repair isn’t just welding — it’s welding where safe access, hot-work control, and corrosion protection all have to hold up under conditions no workshop ever sees. Every one of these jobs was inspected and accepted for operational use before we left site.

This is the kind of work that doesn’t always make headlines, but it’s exactly the kind of work Uduhu Holdings was built for: precise, safety-first, and delivered in environments where there’s no second chance to get it right.

Uduhu Holdings provides welding engineering, fabrication, and structural repair services across South Africa’s marine, mining, energy, and industrial sectors. Get in touch: admin@uduhu.co.za