Page 33: of Marine News Magazine (June 2012)

www.marinelink.com MN33less in other places,? Lorino added.After recent dredging, the entrance to Southwest Pass is now at a project dimension of 45 feet deep and 600feet wide,? he said. That's after we were down to 300 and 200 feet wide last year and early this year. Right now, we have four hopper dredges and one cutter head dredge working the Southwest Pass.? Meanwhile, material from the cut- ter head dredge in Southwest Pass is being pumped to build the lower delta of the Mississippi River,? as Louisiana tries to save its wetlands, Lorino said. And a hopper dredge in Pass A Loutre is dumping mud for beneficial use? or land building. We're expecting to see a slight rise in the river this summer and more dredging will be required then,? Lorino said. We have all the funds we need but don't have adequate equipment for the channel at thistime.?Lorino said equipment is always aproblem. There isn't enough of it across the country,? he noted. And if the HMTF starts to be used for its intended purposes, we'll need a lot more equipment,? he said, referring to the RAMP Act that Congress is now considering. Duffy said there are only ten hop- per dredges in the nation--including dredges owned by the Army Corps and industry--that can work in the lower Mississippi River. And that equipment is also needed to restore and deepen drafts of coastal ports in other areas.? Meanwhile, in the Great Lakes, they use different types of dredging equipment than on the LMR,? he said.GREAT LAKESSHIPSUNDERUSED BECAUSE OFEXCESS SEDIMENTGlen Nekvasil, Ohio-based vice WE SPECIALIZE IN BUILDING COMMERCIAL VESSELS TO MEET YOUR EXACT NEEDS [email protected] 247 Kester Road | Roseburg, OR 97470 GS-07F-0357M28? x 10? RAIV www.northriverboats.com