Eastern cuts steel for dredge ATB

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014 — Eastern Shipbuilding reports that on September 15 it cut steel to start construction of the trailing suction hopper dredge articulated tug barge on order for Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, LLC (NASDAQ: GLDD) (see earlier story).

The ATB consists of a 433 ft dredge barge and 158 ft 4 in 15,600 bhp CPP Tug

The cutting ceremony took place in Eastern’s under roof pre-fabrication building at its Allanton shipyard in Panama City, FL.

Housed in a 560 ft long, 127 ft wide and 50 ft building, the facility supports both of Eastern’s new construction yards with a highly skilled workforce and state of the art equipment that includes a Wheelobrator automatic shot-blasting and painting machine for steel plate and shapes, a Messer MG CNC (NC) plasma cutting and burning machine with four 10 ft x40 ft dry cutting tables and an Ogden automated welding steel panel line.

The dredge barge is to be named Ellis Island. The detailed engineering is being performed by Bay Engineering, Inc., based on an Ocean Tug & Barge Engineering, Inc. ATB design.

Measuring 433 ft x 92 ft x 36 ft, the barge will have a 15,000 cu.yd hopper capacity. The dredge system will be powered by two EMD ME20G7C-T3 engines, each delivering 5,000 hp. each. It will have two 800 hp Schottel STT2 electric, fixed pitch bow thrusters and a Caterpillar C32-T3 harbor genset delivering 910 kW @ 1,800 rpm.

To be named Douglas B Mackie, the 15,662 bhp ATB tug will have overall dimensions of 158 ft 4 in x 52 ft x 32 ft 9 in.

It will be fitted with two Taisei coupler systems and will have two 7,831hp MaK 12M32C-T3 main engines.