J.F. Brennan Company (Brennan) recently established a permanent presence in the Mid-South Region. Our company’s new Mid-South location is in Paducah, Kentucky, and will provide all Brennan services, including above and below-water construction and environmental remediation services.

The work of a dredge operator is often underappreciated so it's important to take a step back and appreciate the complexity and uniqueness of his or her role in the success of a dredging project. Here, we take a closer look at the essential role of a dredge operator.

J.F. Brennan Company (Brennan) formally announces their Small Business Administration (SBA) 8(a) certified joint venture with Ahtna Marine & Construction Company, LLC (AMCC). Publicly titled the Ahtna – J.F. Brennan JV, the partnership establishes a mentor protégé relationship between Brennan and Alaska Native Corporation subsidiary AMCC.

As a leader in inland waterway dredging, J.F. Brennan Company (Brennan) serves as a success story for hydraulically dredging and pumping sediments over long distances and changing elevations. The goal of most dredging projects is to maximize efficiency, which means maximizing the average percent solids in the pipeline. However, there is a fine balance between maximizing percent solids and surpassing critical velocity to transport dredge slurry. Therefore, a dredge operator must understand the importance of critical velocity and how it varies as the material in the dredge cut changes.

Critical velocity, in this case, is the minimum speed at which sediment and water (slurry) must be pumped to prevent the sediment from settling and subsequently plugging the dredge pipeline. Plugging the pipeline is the bane of any dredging operation and one of the few things that will set a dredge operator trembling in their boots. After all, if a pipeline gets plugged, the dredge must shut down, which means the entire project stops.

As the sun on the dredging season in the Midwest inland areas began to set, operations were starting to heat up on the east coast for J.F. Brennan Company (Brennan). For a third straight year, Brennan has had the opportunity to procure work in the milder maritime climate throughout New England during the winter months. These months are key for in-water work on the east coast as they provide opportunities to revitalize salt marshes, re-nourish beaches and restore navigation outside of the fish migration and spawning windows. Generally, this work has been undertaken in and near the coastal salt marshes adjacent to the smaller resort communities.

Brennan blog posts were viewed 13,622 times in 2019. Reviewing our most-searched blog topics helps us construct a list of the marine industry's most critical topics and those most pertinent to our company. So, what were the most-searched topics?

As a marine solutions company, J.F. Brennan Company, Inc. (Brennan) faces a unique array of regulations and rules. While every company deals with regulations, most deal with rules that impact operations only on land or only in the water. We are accountable for regulatory requirements in both areas and have been for years. So, what's changed and what are we doing about it? 

We’re nearly halfway through 2019, and unless you’ve been in a cave or under a rock, you understand that the environmental market is exploding right now. I have been in the environmental industry for 32 years (wow that’s a long time), and I do not believe I have ever experienced this much activity. The size, scopes, and complexities of our current projects are overwhelming. J.F Brennan Company (Brennan) is extremely fortunate to have a very busy, robust workload this year with some exciting projects underway, and more that are set to begin once fish windows open. Based on our own surplus of work and activity, I wanted to share my observations and discuss the current state of the environmental community from a dredging contractor’s perspective.

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.

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.