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known for its leadership position in the mundane world of harbor maintenance and dredging, will now be an impor- tant participant in the emerging arena, describing itself as being “…fully engaged in the rapidly developing offshore wind market in the U.S.” GLDD is behind the construc- tion, at the Philly Shipyard, of a critical piece of infrastruc- ture: Acadia, a Jones Act compliant rock-laying vessel with capacity for 20,000 metric tons of material.

Wind turbines ? xed on the sea-bottom require “scour protection”, with rocks, dropped via the “fallpipe” at the rear of the vessel, positioned to stabilize the sea ? oor around turbine foundations. The GLDD vessel, which will have EPA Tier 4-compliant engines (with the poten- tial to run on bio-fuels), a battery storage system to shave peak loads, and plug-in capability for sourcing shore pow- er when loading up (alongside a quarry near Albany on

New York’s Hudson River), is scheduled for delivery in late 2024. When completed, the vessel would be working Equi- nor’s Empire Wind I and Ørsted’s Sunrise Wind projects.

In its traditional realm, GLDD took delivery of a newly constructed trailing suction hopper dredge Galveston Is- land (6,500 cubic yard capacity) in late 2023, from Con- rad Shipyard, put to work in early 2024. A sister Amelia

Island, is under construction at Conrad’s Deepwater South yard in Amelia, La., with delivery anticipated in 2025.

In June, 2024, Philly Shipyard (which has also built tankers and containerships for the U.S. commercial ? eets) announced that it would be changing hands, with com- panies in the Hanwha Group (a S. Korean conglomerate whose holdings include the shipyards previously under the

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, or DSME, brand) inking a deal to acquire it. According to published announcements, the $100 million deal would be set to close in late 2024. The transaction is subject to various ap- provals, including by the CFIUS (Committee of Foreign

Investments in the U.S., tied to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and focusing on national security implications of foreign investments in U.S. businesses). Foreign owner- ship is not new for the yard; it’s been under Norwegian ownership since the 1990s. The seller in the new deal is

Philly Shipyard ASA, a company listed on the Oslo Stock 225,000 members

Exchange, with majority backing by companies linked to the Norwegian industrial investment company Aker ASA.

Philly Shipyard was awarded a contract for three Aloha