DREDGING HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PAST

35 YEARS AGO – 1978

On the occasion  of the Eighth World Dredging  Conference (WODCON) in Amsterdam  on  November 14 through 16 World Dredging & Marine Construction magazine published a list of statistics for the previous seven WODCONS. They  were  held  in  New  York  City  in 1967; Rotterdam  in 1968; Singapore in 1970; New Orleans in 1971; Hamburg in 1973; Taipei in 1974 and San Francisco in 1976 and were all organized  under the leadership of M.J. Richardson.

30 YEARS AGO – 1983

The Corps of Engineers submitted  a Mount  St. Helens comprehensive  plan to President  Ronald Reagan who had requested  the plan in May 1982 in an effort to solve long-term  problems  created by the May 1980 eruption  of the volcano.   The two-part  plan addressed the  problems  of  Spirit  Lake  and  the sediment deposition downstream.

The National  Research Council  embarked  on  a National  Dredging  study sponsored by the Corps of Engineers to assess the dredging needs of the United States in the near and mid-term  future.  A public  meeting was addressed by Col. George Kleb commander of the Water Resources  Support  Center and by spokespersons  for a number of other interested organizations.

20 YEARS AGO – 1993

The American  Society  of Civil Engineers (ASCE) awarded Dr. John B. Herbich with its 1993 International Coastal Engineering  Award.    The award  cited Dr. Herbich as “a renowned researcher educator   and  author  whose  international  leadership  intellect   and  vision have profoundly  advanced  the knowledge  of  coastal  dredging  and  ocean engineering for over four decades.”

10 YEARS AGO – 2003

Rowan Electric Inc. (dba  Oilfield Electric  Marine) received  a $9837500 contract  from the Corps Marine Design Center  to  build  a 20-inch  all-electric  cutter suction dredge to replace the St. Paul District’s  Dredge Thompson.

VOSTA  LMG  introduced   the  MK3 a  universal  bow  coupling  for  hopper dredges  that  allowed  several dredges working  on the same contract  to  use the same discharge  line or allow easy connection and disconnection  by  a single  dredge. The coupling  allowed connection  to discharge  pipeline  from all manufacturers.