Dredging the access channels of Nigeria’s river ports has been a core mandate of the Nigerian Ports Authority since the inception of maritime trading in the precolonial times. Fast forward to present day Lagos and the port still has to be maintained, thus Channel deepening works are in progress at the Lagos port and further deepening has been planned for the inner harbour channels in 2023.

The current channel design was approved by the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) in 2014. Following this, stakeholders took advantage of the new channel design by increasing the size of the vessels using the port and visiting their terminals.

The increasing vessel sizes have progressed to a point where Lagos Channel Management (LCM) has considered increasing the channel depth a further 1.5m (-13.5m CD to -15.0m CD).

The channel deepening works are being overseen by CARES, with Beckett Rankine assisting by reviewing the stability of berths in the inner harbour, considering the potential berth pocket deepening and the increased loading from larger vessels.

This work has involved a general visual survey of the inner harbour channels to identify the different berth construction types throughout the port and their current condition. Stakeholders are being consulted to identify the needs of the individual berth owners with this information going into our analysis of the berth structures to identify which of those might need additional support.