A backhoe dredger is a machine mounted on a ship or barge that is used to dredge the seabed so that large ships can navigate the river. A backhoe dredger is just one of the engineering vessels that accomplish the task of dredging. This type of dredge is similar to the backhoe excavator used on land, and it can be built by installing an excavator on a ship or barge. However, backhoe dredgers are generally large because the bucket needs to reach deep channels.
Backhoe dredgers have limited dredging depths (up to 25 meters) due to the use of anchor mooring and fixed booms and struts.
Some of these dredgers are self-propelled.
In 1999, the shipyard "De Donge" delivered the world's largest backhoe dredger to "Great Lakes Dredge Dock Co". Equipped with a Liebherr P996 excavator, this dredger can dredge to a depth of about 17 meters with its 13 meter long bucket. However, if the boom configuration is changed, the dredger can dredge to a maximum depth of 30 meters. The maximum penetration/breaching capacity is 170 tons! The weight of the excavator is 470 tons!
