Van Oord is proud to announce that it has been awarded the IADC Safety Award 2025 during the Annual General Meeting of the International Association of Dredging Companies in Stockholm, Sweden. The award recognises Van Oord’s commitment to safety and innovation in the dredging industry, specifically for its newly designed gasket that significantly reduces the risk of injury during pipe assembly.

When connecting the flanges of steel reclamation pipes, a paper gasket is placed in between to seal the gap. When using traditional gaskets, workers have to hold the gaskets in place during the sealing process, creating a potential risk of finger injuries. With Van Oord’s redesign of the gaskets to add ‘ears’, personnel are now able to keep their fingers further away from the flanges, therefore significantly reducing the risk of injuries while connecting reclamation pipes.

For each 12-metre section of reclamation pipe, a gasket must be placed. With kilometres of reclamation pipes being connected annually by the global dredging industry, this small change in design can have a huge impact in reducing the risk for personnel involved in this activity. With this solution, the gaskets themselves remain the same and only a small change in design was needed.