Dredging projects are complex and involve many components and significant planning before operation. The intricacy of these projects means that pricing is often multifaceted. Here are seven common areas that drive overall costs on a dredging project.
There is nothing more important on a job site than safety. To prevent an injury, one must recognize the potential risk and take mitigative action beforehand. The challenge that companies like us face is not so much trying to figure out how an incident happened, but training employees to recognize the potential of injury before it happens. Once that mindset has been ingrained, team members must be empowered to address and escalate it without repercussion.
Why Add Polymers?
One of the biggest challenges on a dredging project is managing the water that is excavated and transported with the sediment. On hydraulic dredging jobs where sediment and water are pumped through a pipeline as a slurry, water can account for 90+ percent of the volumetric flow. After the slurry reaches the disposal area, the water must be separated from the sediment, collected, and often clarified or treated. This process must happen as fast as the water is being pumped, which for a 12-inch cutterhead dredge could be 5,000 gallons per minute.
Stray current corrosion is a common threat to water-based steel structures such as barge terminals. Though hard to identify the source, damage from stray current can be prevented by following 3 simple steps.
Working around water poses a plethora of challenges. There are always two parts of a water-based project, the above and below water sections. Access to the above water section is easy, however when working below the waterline access is not that easy. One of the more apparent issues is what do you do when the water is in the way of your work? One solution is to build a cofferdam.
Scour poses a large threat to the stability of any structure that is partially or entirely underwater. It may develop slowly over time, or be brought on quickly by an intense rain event or seasonal flooding. In some cases, such as along a shoreline, scour can be very evident. In others, scour can go unnoticed for an extended period of time. Whether it is taking place around the footing of a bridge pier, along the base of a sheet pile wall, or along a tailrace on a dam, scour may not be evident until the structure begins to show signs above the water. At this point, the structure is beginning to fail and repairs must be done soon to avoid a total loss of integrity. Repairing scour and erosion issues that may be going unnoticed in any location is vital as it will save a lot of money in the long run, and extend the life of the structure.
Our experience in wetland habitat restoration began decades ago with the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program (UMRR), the largest restoration program ever undertaken on a major waterway worldwide. Since then, restoring marshes, wetlands, and highly sensitive ecosystems along inland and coastal waters nationwide has been a main initiative.
Lock and Dams, bridges, pipeline crossings, and barge terminals are all examples of water-based infrastructure. Ensuring that these structures maintain their integrity is essential to their continued operation, however water-based infrastructure presents an added challenge because a portion of the structure is underwater.
A story of Total Quality Management for an inland marine company.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies a dredge operator as a person who removes sand, gravel, or other material in order to excavate and maintain navigable channels in waterways. In the industry, we call the dredge operator a leverman. This is a historical remnant of the days when the pilothouse, or lever room, was full of mechanical levers that controlled various parts of the dredge. The levers eventually gave way to computerized control systems...
