Columbia River - Astoria, Oregon

GLDD dredged maintenance material from the mouth of the Columbia River and various points along the river. Project operations entailed strategically disposing 2,300,000 cubic yards of the dredged material in-water. In addition, 400,000 cubic yards of material were pumped upland to the Southwest Washington Littoral Drift zone, near the mouth of the River.

This project entailed mechanical dredging of 2,300,000 cubic yards of mud, sand, glacial till and solid rock within New York Harbor and Kill Van Kull Channel with disposal at five sites, including four artificial reefs within the Atlantic Ocean.

Prime Contractor for dredging and upland disposal.

This project entailed the maintenance dredging and upland disposal of 3,300,000 cubic yards of shoaled material within the Chesapeake Bay and Baltimore Harbor. The clamshell dredges No. 54 and No. 55 were used to complete this project.

USACE - New York District; Port Authority of New York/New Jersey

Eight total contracts

In 1980, the Corps of Engineers embarked on a phased program to deepen the entrance channels to the Port of New York/New Jersey from 35 feet to 40 feet, then to 45 feet, and eventually to 50 feet. In the execution of this work, Great Lakes has performed many key projects, becoming the dominant contractor in this sector of the market. The projects required the excavation of a full range of materials that included soft and stiff clays, red shale, serpentine rock, glacial till and granite.

• Maintenance dredging with ocean disposal totaled 2,627,000 cubic yards.
• New work dredging entailed construction of deep CAD cells to accept 1,400,000 cubic yards of contaminated materials.
• Ocean disposal totaled 1,500,000 cubic yards, and upland disposal 215,000 cubic yards.
• Capping medium to cover contaminated materials placed in CAD cells totaled 257,500 cubic yards.

This new work navigational improvement project involved deepening Richmond Harbor to a 38-foot depth. The new work dredging totaling 2,877,500 cubic yards were performed by clamshell dredges using environmental buckets, with offshore disposal at the San Francisco Ocean Disposal Site (SF-DODS). Tight environmental requirements applied with respect to the towing and disposal of dredged materials. Great Lakes made 470 disposal trips to the SF-DODS with no misplaced materials, far exceeding the performance record of any dredging contractor prior to or since this project.

The chief purpose of the project was to increase navigational safety and efficiency and eliminate or greatly reduce delays for larger vessels by deepening the harbor's five principal tributaries from -35 feet to -40 feet. This involved removal and disposal of environmentally sensitive contaminated sediments not approved for off-shore disposal. Instead, large underwater disposal cells were excavated on the bottom of the harbor. Contaminated material was placed in these cells, then covered with a 3- to 5-foot thick capping layer of clean sand excavated from a simultaneous maintenance project in the Cape Cod Canal. Material removed from the cells was taken to the Massachusetts Bay Disposal Site. This was the first project of its kind to employ deep, in-channel disposal cells on such a scale. The company's resourceful management of the project earned a special quality award from the Federal Government.

USACE- Jacksonville District; Jacksonville Port Authority

Jacksonville's main shipping channel, a 23-mile stretch of the St. Johns River, extends from the river's mouth to the Jacksonville Port Authority's Talleyrand Marine Terminal near downtown Jacksonville. The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) authorized the deepening of Jacksonville's harbor from its current depth of -38 feet to a depth of -40 feet (to -41 feet in areas of limestone rock bottom) from the mouth of the St. Johns River to Drummond Point. Dredging included deepening the west channel of JAXPORT's Blount Island Marine Terminal, taking the channel from -30 feet to -38 feet.

This project was for the renovation of Berths 55 and 56 in the Oakland Inner Harbor Channel. The project entailed:

• Cutter suction dredging 1,100,000 cubic yards of stiff material
• Mechanical dredging 81,000 cubic yards of shoaled material and bay mud
• Stripping 540,000 cubic yards from surface areas with land equipment
• Hydraulic fill: In two lifts, first to 10 feet, then to 30 feet