Florida shipbuilder the Eastern Shipbuilding Group and Netherlands-based marine engineering company Royal IHC have formed a strategic partnership with the objective of designing and constructing a highly automated, medium hopper dredger for use by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
The dredger will be built at Eastern Shipbuilding's Allanton and Port St Joe facilities. Delivery is scheduled for 2027.
The new hopper dredger will enter service with the USACE's Ready Reserve Fleet and will help provide safe, reliable, effective, and environmentally sustainable waterborne transportation systems for vital national security, commerce, and recreation needs.
The vessel will replace the 57-year-old dredger McFarland, which is one of four oceangoing hopper dredgers in service with the USACE.
Upon completion, the new hopper dredger will have a length of 320 feet (97.5 metres), a beam of 72 feet (21.9 metres), a hull depth of 28 feet (8.5 metres), a maximum draught of 25.5 feet (7.7 metres), and a maximum hopper capacity of 6,000 cubic yards (4,587 cubic metres).
