A €1.1 million Caterpillar excavator, which the Antigua and Barbuda government expects to boost the country’s dredging operation, has officially arrived on the island late Tuesday evening.

The excavator, which weighs between 90 and 100 tonnes without its attachments, arrived at the Port with longtime operators expressing awe at the overall size of the machinery.

Lynn Walt Spencer, better known as Crusher, who has operated cranes at the port for nearly 50 years, said he has never witnessed equipment of this scale arrive in Antigua before.

“This machine right now, whatsoever work that you have in Antigua for this machine, like to clear the channel, I think you have the right thing,” Spencer told Antigua.news.

The veteran crane operator, recognized as the longest-serving in his field at the port, emphasized the exceptional size of the new equipment compared to the existing excavators in Antigua.

The government is hoping that the size and power of the new equipment could break through stubborn obstacles in its dredging operations, both at the St John’s Harbour and the Crabbes Peninsula.

For months, the government, through recently acquired company Blue Ocean Dredging, has been struggling to deal with hard rock formations at the two ports, both critical for the country’s tourism and energy sector ambitions.

At the St John’s Harbour, tourism officials are hoping the new excavator can help reignite the plan to have Oasis class ships in port, increasing the volume of passengers per ship, which in turn boosts spending during the high tourism season and homeporting operations.

Meanwhile at the Crabbes Peninsula, officials at the Antigua Power Company and energy officials are optimistic that the machinery will allow ships carrying liquid natural gas (LNG) to port, opening up new opportunities for the island to act as a distribution hub for the rest of the East Caribbean, as well as lower overall energy costs.

Discharging crew

“When you look on the rest excavator that we have in Antigua, and you put it beside this one, the rest of them look just like a toy from Shoals and Toy Gifts,” Spencer said.

“This machine now is as big as a crane. It is bigger than a cherry picker, and it’s bigger than any track crane that we have in Antigua.”

Spencer suggested the excavator appears well-suited for channel-clearing operations and other heavy-duty construction work requiring significant capacity.