Page 4: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 15, 1980)

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Conrad Industries. Inc., located along 450 feet of Atchafalaya River frontage in

Morgan City, La., has expanded its facilities to triple production. A new metal build ing (right) measuring 360 by 100 by 45 feet houses new barge construction, new drydock construction, and is equipped with three 10-ton overhead cranes, and welding and plate-bending machines.

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Expansion At Conrad Industries

Triples Barge Production Capacity

Conrad Industries, Inc., located on the Atchafalaya River in Mor- gan City, La., has completed an expansion program enabling the company to triple its barge pro- duction capacity. A new metal building 360 by 100 by 45 feet fronting on an added 150 feet of riverfront houses new barge con- struction, new drydock construc- tion, three 10-ton overhead cranes, and welding and plate-bending machines.

The Conrad yard, founded in 1948 by Parker Conrad, now pres- ident and chairman of the board, features two tilt-cradle launching platforms, two 600-ton drydocks, one 800-ton drydock, a 1,500-ton drydock, one 40-ton crawler crane, one 50-ton crawler crane, three complete sandblasting units, and three 800-cfm air compressors.

Employing 85 persons, Conrad In- dustries also operates complete maintenance and carpenter shops.

Reviewing more than three dec- ades of the company's operations,

James Court, vice president, said steel-hull barges have dominated production since 1964. Now build- ing barges up to 200 feet in length and up to 75 feet wide, the privately owned company spent 16 years building wooden- hull shrimp trawlers.

Other than the operations build- ing, Conrad's expansion and ren- ovation project included the pav- ing of the entire yard, situated along 450 feet of riverfront. The totally paved yard, according to

Mr. Court, eliminates mud and contributes to the company's com- mitment in developing "tech- niques, procedures, and accurate, swift, streamlined methods of building barges with remarkable cost efficiency."

As an example, Mr. Court point- ed out, the company is geared with both personnel and equip- ment to build a deck barge 120 by 30 by 7 in a two-week period.

Two of the key production per- sonnel have been with the founder since the company began; joining

Mr. Conrad at the time he pur- chased the company was J.C. Rat- cliff, now yard superintendent, and L.J. Vicknair Jr., purchasing agent.

In addition to deck barges, Con- rad Industries specializes in fuel, spud, and self-propelled barges.

The company uses semi-automatic submerged arc welding techniques to cut production time.

Curtiss Wright Awarded $13.7-Million Navy Contract

For Landing Craft Engines

Curtiss Wright Corporation,

Wood-Ridge, N.J., is being award- ed a $13,720,329 negotiated cost- plus-fixed-fee contract for design- ing, developing, fabricating, and testing parts for stratified charge rotary combustion (SCRC-2350) engines for land/water vehicles for the Marine Corps. The Naval

Sea Systems Command is the con- tracting activity. (N00024-80-C- 5603) 6 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News