Page 83: of Marine News Magazine (November 2010)

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PEOPLE & COMPANY NEWS a basin that is under construction at the Tacoa floating power generation facility. The caissons, each having dimensions of 115ft in length, 16ft in width and standing 26 ft high, will be installed at the entrance of the basin that will house the two 170 MW power barges constructed by Waller, now undergoing pre-commissioning activities at the site. The caissons will protect the power barges from wave and tidal action from the sea. Waller designed and constructed the caissons under an EPC contract with

Geohidra of Venezuela and construct- ed the units to Class by Germanischer

Lloyd at the Signal International yard in Orange, Texas. Weighing some 450 metric tons each, the caissons are fitted with a ballast system that will permit their positioning and sinking in place and their future removal and replacement when the basin is extended for installation of a future steam cycle power barge that Waller is currently designing.

OIS Expands U.S. Gulf &

Mexico Services

Offshore Inland Marine, Industrial,

Oilfield Services (OIS) has expanded its U.S. Gulf and Mexico Services with two new facilities. OIS has opened a new deepwater repair and fabrication facility in Pensacola, Fla., positioned as a marine, subsea and drilling support base. This facility has 2,000 ft of deepwater access, nine acres of available fabrication and proj- ect lay-down area and over 100,000 sq ft of covered warehouse.

Conrad New Shipbuilding Business

Conrad Industries, Inc. announced the signing of new contracts, bringing current backlog to approximately $86m, compared to $41m at June 30, 2010, $38m at December 31, 2009 and $56.1m at September 30, 2009.

New contracts include three 150-ft by 50-ft by eight-ft heavy load capac- ity equipment hauling barges for the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In addition, the North Carolina

Department of Transportation award- ed a contract to Conrad for the con- struction of a 220-ft passenger and vehicle ferry for servicing the Pamlico

Avtron Upgrades T/S State of Michigan

Avtron upgraded the T/S State of Michigan propul- sion system with an Avtron ADD-32 Electric Drive

System. The T/S State of Michigan is a 224-ft ex-T-

AGOS vessel currently used by the Great Lakes

Maritime Academy (GLMA) as a training vessel. After serving as surveillance vessels for the U.S. military through the 80s and 90s, many T-AGOS class ships have been reassigned for research and training purpos- es. The existing analog drive system was obsolete and unsupportable. As part of this project, the GLMA upgraded both the machinery monitoring alarm sys- tem and the electric drive propulsion system. GLMA purchased new Avtron digital controls for the port/starboard propulsion and bow thruster drives.

Avtron also provided new field supplies, new PLC hardware and control logic and an Ethernet interface for remote communication and fast diagnostic capabil- ities.

Photo courtesy Avtron Industrial Automation, Inc., copyright L.A. Cohen