Shallow Draft Dredge for US Corps of Engineers

Cummins Vessel Reference #657

Time and tide are rightly noted as inevitable and with them comes silting. The US Army Corps of Engineer will soon take delivery of a shallow draft dredge that, while stopping neither time nor tide, will do much to alleviate the silting.

Building at Conrad Industry’s Morgan City shipyard, the new dredge, named Murden, will work in shallow draft harbors along the US Atlantic coast. The 156 by 35-foot vessel can dredge in water as shallow as five feet. The vessel’s hopper can hold 512 cubic yards of dredged material.

A feature of this type of draghead suction dredge is the large hinges that allow the split hull to open down the full length of the vessel. The deckhouse, containing the engine room and bridge, is hinged on both sides to remain independent of the hull. A Cummins QSM11 (DM)-powered 250 kW generators is located forward in each independent half of the hull. These gensets power 100 HP electric motors to drive the port and starboard suction pumps located in the space between the hopper and the hull-sides.

The dredge’s propulsion engines, located in the deckhouse, are a pair of Cummins QSK19-M diesels each delivering 760 HP at 2100 RPM. The engines turn into ZF/HRP Model 4111 stern drives w/2050 gears. The Z-drives pivot with the hull and can be raised or lowered to meet draft restrictions.

A workshop and a simple galley are ahead of the engine room on the main deck level of the cabin. Since crews will be accommodated ashore there are no bunkrooms on board. The second deck contains a roomy pilothouse with a split console to allow the operator good visibility forward. Just ahead of this and a few feet lower, a second set of controls is provided for the dredge operator.

For further information:

Gary B. Lipely
Director of Marketing & Sales
Conrad Shipyard, L.L.C.
P) Box 790
1501 Front St.
Morgan City, LA 70381-0790
USA

Joe P Cieslak
Engineering Tech
US Army Corps of Engineers
E-mail: joseph.p.cieslak@usace.army.mil

Calvin Klotz
V-P Marine Division
Cummins Mid-South, Inc.
110 Airline Hwy
Kenner, LA 70062
USA
Phone: 504 468 3535
E-mail: calvin.b.klotz@cummins.com