Internships are an excellent way to gain hands-on experience and learn a little more about your field of study while working in a professional environment. At Brennan, we value growth and development. Our COMPASS internship program strives to provide students with practical experience and useful knowledge to sharpen their skills in their chosen field.
At Brennan, we utilize hydrographic survey systems to measure progress on all of our dredging projects. These systems typically include a positioning system, such as RTK-GPS, and a multi-beam echo-sounder. The Real Time Kinematic, Global Positioning System, or RTK-GPS, is a precise satellite navigation tool, whereas an echo-sounder is a sonar device for measuring depth. Combining the two allows us to achieve very accurate measurements on the location of the river bottom. We take the data points created during these measurements and create a 3-dimensional model using Hypack® software. By running a survey before we dredge, and then one afterward, we can create two models and compare them to one another. The difference between the two models is the total volume of in-situ yardage that we have removed. Typically, we are paid by the in-situ volume of sediment (in cubic yards) that we remove so it is very important that these measurements are extremely accurate. Therefore, establishing quality control checks on the equipment before we survey is an extremely important step in achieving accurate measurements.
There is a lot of buzz around the president’s infrastructure plan lately. It is clear that everyone wants better infrastructure, regardless to which party an individual may belong. The biggest challenge to getting what everyone wants is funding, and making matters more difficult, the allocation of this funding is another source of disagreement. As a contractor that provides construction services to owners of infrastructure, it is clear that the waterways are suffering the most from lack of investment.
At Brennan, training is the backbone of our safety program, and we have come to discover a high return on investment by bringing much of our training in-house. Doing this helps us prepare our workforce for our unique work features, which in the long run, lowers our Experience Modification Rate (EMR). A company’s EMR is a number used by insurance companies to determine the past cost of injuries and any future chance of risks. The lower your EMR number, the better your standing compared to similar companies. The average industry EMR rating is 1.00, so companies that can get a lower rate than this save money when it comes to insurance premiums (not to mention savings associated with eliminating workplace injuries). When taking into account the number of manhours we work each year, our current EMR of .52 translates to a savings of up to $400,000! We believe one of the reasons we achieve such a low EMR is because we focus on quality when it comes to training.
According to the United States Department of Transportation, underwater scour is the leading cause of bridge failure, ahead of collisions and overloading. Scour is the erosion or removal of a streambed or bank material from bridge foundations due to flowing water. As many bridges sit over water, the potential dangers of scour cannot be ignored. There are many solutions to scour problems. However, there are two options that we find the most effective.
Obtaining recognition as a “great place to work” is not something that comes easily for most organizations. Certification as a Great Place to Work requires that a company be evaluated on many different levels. We have worked hard to establish a workplace that inspires the passion of its employees and allows them to use their talents to be motivated by what they do and with whom they work. At Brennan, we have established several foundational attributes which make a great work place. Here are a few examples of what we think is needed to make Brennan a “Great Place to Work”:
Dredging around utilities is challenging, and mistakes can be expensive and dangerous. When utilities, such as power lines, natural gas lines or fiber optics, are above ground they can be easily marked, and a plan can be developed to avoid them. However, when these same utilities are underwater, locating them and working around them adds an additional layer of risk for the contractor.
Turbidity is a hot-button issue in the environmental dredging industry because if it is not controlled, contamination can spread to clean areas. Since every dredge project will experience the presence of suspended sediments in the water column, proper measures are taken to control this problem.
As we begin the month of November those of us that work in and around the water have to start planning for seasonal changes and the accompanying cold weather challenges. Water temperatures begin to drop rapidly, sometimes over a degree Fahrenheit (F) per day. This presents a whole new bunch of logistical and safety risks.
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