Page 52: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (Jul/Aug 2018)

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Dredging Roundtable

The use of sediment bene? cially, including the placement of beach quality sand, has had a dramatic impact on our capital investments over the last 20 years.

In a competitive market, we have put more power on the dredge and booster pumps and signi? cantly enhanced the capabilities of our ? eet of support equipment. other assets are new, as well, dating back to 2018, 2017, and

The use, placement and disposal of dredge materi- 2009 respectively. The General MacArthur is currently under als can be a hot issue. Often, that decision has been construction at C&C shipyard in Louisiana. made during the pre-project EIA and is out of your

EE: Weeks has been making major investments over the hands. How, if at all does a commercial dredger get last decade, both in dredging vessels and all the support involved in these issues?

equipment necessary to perform major dredging projects.

EE: Controversies over the placement of dredged material

Ancillary equipment, including boosters, barges, boats and have lessened over the years as the agencies have become miles of discharge pipeline are an essential component of any more comfortable with bene? cial uses of dredged material dredging operation. Every Weeks dredge makes use of ad- for environmental enhancement or restoration. The use of vanced automation, and ever more powerful and fuel-ef? cient sediment bene? cially, including the placement of beach qual- engines to drive both propulsion and pumps. Our newest hop- ity sand, has had a dramatic impact on our capital investments per dredge, MAGDALEN, just went to work on the Atlantic over the last 20 years. In a competitive market, we have put

Coast this year (2018). She was built in Eastern Shipyard, more power on the dredge and booster pumps and signi? -

Panama City, FL, and is the size of our two existing hopper cantly enhanced the capabilities of our ? eet of support equip- dredges combined. She is fast, shallow draft, and can pump ment. These more complicated projects also require more out over long distances, thereby reducing the need for booster highly trained surveyors and heavy equipment operators at pumps. We are very happy with her early performance and the placement site. look forward to seeing all that she will do the years ahead.

We do not usually get involved in the project planning pro-

Both the modernized and highly automated BE Lindhom and cess. However, if an agency or engineering ? rm wants to know

RN Weeks will continue to be an important part of our work- whether their plan is buildable, or the relative costs of various horse hopper dredge ? eet. We are also building another large placement alternatives, they will often call our estimators for sea-going pipeline dredge at C&C Marine in Belle Chase, advice. We want to help ? nd solutions that work for everyone.

LA. While Weeks has a large ? eet of cutter suction dredges,

MM: We have relationships with our clients, engineers, and the JS Chatry will be the most advanced. In July 2012, the the permitting agencies, so we try to help our customers with

CR McCaskill entered our ocean-going cutter suction pipe- education and planning so they are prepared when the time line dredge ? eet. For the last six years, she has been working comes to execute their projects.

almost non-stop on projects around the country. The Chatry builds on the capabilities built into the McCaskill and will

Describe your ? eet and operational equipment join our ? eet sometime next year.

mix. Do you specialize in one form or dredging

JC: We recently completed major upgrades to our ? eet. We over another?

are ? nishing design plans on a new 5,000 cubic yard hopper

JC: Cashman is the premier bucket and environmen- dredge. We intend to begin construction on the ? rst of two tal dredging company in the United States. We have bucket 5000 cubic yard hopper dredges in the spring of 2019. We’ve dredge sizes of 4 yards to 50 yards; 2 backhoe dredges of 5 already begun machinery acquisition and started the procure- yards to 18 yards; 1 hopper dredge; and ? ve environmental ment process for long lead-time equipment.

bucket dredges. We’re proud to have completed the largest 52 Maritime Logistics Professional July/August 2018 | | 50-63 MLP JulyAug18.indd 52 50-63 MLP JulyAug18.indd 52 8/7/2018 3:41:02 PM8/7/2018 3:41:02 PM