Page 38: of Marine News Magazine (February 2016)

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DREDGING

Dredging up

History and

Innovation

New J.F. Brennan Dredge Proves Its

Value in Mississippi River Projects.

By Charles Johnson, DSC Dredge, LLC hen J.F. Brennan Company Inc. took delivery of a new customized Barracuda Class swinging ladder dredge in January 2015, the “Victor Buhr”

W became the ninth dredge in Brennan’s ? eet – comprising six Moray Class dredges with 8-inch discharges and three larger Barracuda Class dredges – manufactured by Reserve,

Louisiana-based DSC Dredge, LLC. The dredge, which is the namesake of Brennan’s Environmental Division man- ager, was quickly put into service to perform in Brennan’s numerous dredging projects.

Founded in 1919, La Crosse, Wisconsin-based J.F. Bren- nan has long been involved with marine construction and environmental remediation for inland waterways through- out the United States. Brennan works with both govern- ment agencies and private companies, providing such ser- vices as dredging, diving, dam repairs, pile driving, railroad bridge repairs, in-situ capping and more. The company has handled lock and dam work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and is one of only three contractors in the nation on contract to complete remediation dredging for the Great Lakes National Project Of? ce. missioned Victor Buhr dredge was ideal for this project.

The Victor Buhr is customized to allow for dredging depths of up to 36 feet. For the Quad Cities project, the

Digging In

The Victor Buhr’s inaugural project, which began in late dredge was required to work at depths that reached 15 feet.

April and was completed in late May, involved siltation According to Del Groth, Brennan superintendent for the dredging at the Quad Cities Generating Station, a two- project, “Quad Cities Nuclear requires a de? ned amount unit nuclear power plant located on the Mississippi River of water to be available for emergency purposes. If it goes near Cordova, Illinois. out of spec, through too much sand or silt coming close to

Quad Cities Generating Station requires biennial dredg- the secured intake for the plant, then it needs to be cleaned ing of siltation near the secured water intake area of the out. Quad Cities has worked with us to do this about every plant. Brennan’s dredge experts decided the newly com- other year for the past 20 years. This year, we worked seven

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