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News
District Employees Tour Hopper Dredge
December 17, 2008
By Brittany Brown,
Norfolk District Public Affairs
Photos by Charles Sanders,
Norfolk District Civil Engineering
NORFOLK, Va.—Nearly 24 Norfolk District employees tour the Dredge McFarland after it traversed to Hampton Roads from the Philadelphia District. The McFarland is dry docked in Norfolk, Va. at Colonna Shipyard until Dec. 20., receiving emergency repairs to swap out both tail shafts, as well as conduct a U.S. Coast Guard dry dock inspection and renew her USCG Certificate of Inspection.
The Dredge McFarland is one of only four oceangoing hopper dredges in the Army Corps' Minimum Dredging Fleet. It is also the only dredge in the world with triple capability for direct pump out, bottom discharge and sidecasting of material. The vessel, and its crew of 60, has two missions: (1) emergency and national defense dredging worldwide, and (2) planned dredging in commercial waterways, mainly federal navigation projects along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. In a typical year, the McFarland removes about seven million cubic yards of dredged material.
Like a vacuum cleaner, the McFarland scoops out navigation channels to make them deeper, then either discharges the material in deep water, sidecasts it aside the channel, pumps it to an upland disposal area where some of it can later be used for construction, or pumps it directly onto a beach or coastal wetland needing renourishment. The McFarland can dredge around the clock in any environment, and can handle a variety of materials including silt, sand, clay and shells.
To view photos of Norfolk District vessels, go to our Flickr page - http://www.flickr.com/photos/armyengineersnorfolk/sets/72157606809945221/
SOURCE: Global Security Online - http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/dredge-hopper.htm