DREDGING HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PAST

30 years ago (1981)
Bean Dredging Corporation announced that its dustpan dredge Lenel Bean had would perform maintenance dredging on 10 crossings on the Mississippi River near Memphis Tennessee.

The Chief of Engineers Lt. Gen. J.K. Bratton announced that the COE civil works programs would lose 790 manpower spaces before the end of FY 1981 because of budget cutbacks.

The World Bank announced that it would support Mexico’s efforts to prepare a port development program for four coastal areas of the country. A pre-investment loan of $14 million was made to help finance consulting services for the planning study and design of four large industrial ports.

20 years ago (1991)
George Watts received the first Dredger of the Year award presented at the annual WEDA meeting at the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas and Suzanne Watts won the women’s trophy in the first annual WEDA golf tournament.

Enviro Contractors used two VMI Piranhas – track-mounted cutterhead pumping units – to clean a waste lagoon at the the City of Dallas South Side Treatment Facility.

The Corps hopper dredge Pacific was sold to the Texas National Guard for use as a dredge training vessel by the 211th Engineer Dredge Detachment.

10 years ago (2001)
The 16th World Dredging Congress was held at the Hotel Shangri-La in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. The Port Klang Authority and the Eastern Dredging Association (EADA) were co-hosts of the event which drew 236 delegates presented 60 technical papers and included 23 exhibitors. Capt. David Padman was elected secretary general of EADA and John Dobson advanced to chairman replacing Ir. Marangin Simatupang who had held the position since the formation of EADA in the early 1980’s. IDR printed a photo of Greg Hartman Bob Hopman Larry Patella Neville Burt and Ram Mohan on a WODCON field trip.