Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp., the largest provider of dredging services in the U.S. and a major provider of environmental and infrastructure services, recently signed a $213.3 million contract with the Corps of Engineers. The work will be for the Post 45 Charleston Entrance Channel Maintenance and New Work Dredging — Contract 2 Project. The scope of work includes excavation of approximately 8 million cubic yards of material to deepen a portion of the Charleston, S.C., harbor entrance channel. Work is expected to be completed by the end of 2020.
Great Lakes expects the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to award the option work items of the contract within 120 days. This additional work consists of the excavation of 5.5 million cubic yards of soil valued at $65.1 million to complete the deepening of the entrance channel, resulting in a total contract amount of $278.4 million, totaling 13.5 million cubic yards of excavation which will be completed by the end of 2020.
Work is expected to be completed by the end of 2020. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock photo
“The Charleston 2 deepening project is an important win for the company representing the largest dredging contract ever awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” David Simonelli, Great Lakes’ president, dredging division, said in a statement announcing the contract. “Combined with the $47.2 million Charleston 1 deepening project Great Lakes won in August, our hopper and cutter dredges will excavate over 20 million cubic yards of material to deepen the 18 mile Charleston Entrance Channel. We are pleased to see the U.S. Corps of Engineers, State of South Carolina and South Carolina Port Authority moving this crucial work forward on an expedited basis to create neo-Panamax vessel access to Charleston.”
“Great Lakes looks forward to successfully working both Charleston 1 and 2 in the coming years. This historic award adds to Great Lakes’ already strong position in the market for deepening projects, having completed the PortMiami Deepening project in 2015 and with work currently taking place on the Savannah Harbor Deepening,” Lasse Petterson, chief executive officer, said in his prepared comments. “Our history with these types of projects, our current diverse fleet and the addition of the Ellis Island, position us well to compete on the expected additional upcoming port deepening bids at Boston and Jacksonville.”
