DREDGING HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PAST
35 years ago – 1978
Portland Oregon-based Western Pacific Dredging Company was awarded a contract to perform dredging in support of the construction of the Itaipu Hydroelectric Dam on the Parana River on the Brazilian-Paraguayan Border. Robert Lofgren president of Western Pacific said that the dredging would be done at a more than 200-foot depth and that the company had designed and built a suction dredge and clamshell dredge capable of digging at those extreme depths.
30 years ago – 1983
Manson Construction Company christened its 4000-cubic-yard split hull hopper dredge Newport on June 2. The ceremony at Manson’s facility in Seattle was attended by current and former Manson employees as well as suppliers and officers of other dredging companies. The dredge featured a hopper overflow system designed by Manson engineers.
George Dent joined his son David’s newly-established (in February 1982) company Southern Dredging Company as president. George Dent retired from Merritt Dredging Company in November 1982. Southern Dredging acquired and was operating Merritt’s cutterhead dredges Cherokee and Clinton.
20 years ago – 1993
The Savannah Harbor shipping channels – 11 miles of ocean entrance channel and 18 miles of river channel – were being deepened from 38 to 42 feet in three phases. The contractors were Norfolk Dredging Company Weeks Marine and T.L. James Marine Group.
William R. Murden and Max Huff published a paper describing the procedures and applications of differential global positioning – DGPS.
10 years ago – 2003
Albert “Bubba” Savage joined Metso Minerals to promote the pump lines formerly produced by Mobile Pulley & Machine Works and acquired by Metso when Steel Processors purchased Mobile Pulley. The lines included the Thomas Marathon AMSCO and Titan pump lines.
IDR commemorated the life of Dutch dredging great Jan de Koening who died on April 12 at the age of 78. Among his achievements were a method of hydraulic dredging 50 meters deep; devising the Constant Tonnage Loading System for optimum loading of silt-based slurry in hopper dredges; and achieving 29 patents for dredging equipment and processes.
