Posted on August 3, 2022
In recognition of his extensive and outstanding contributions to the dredging community and to the Western Dredging Association, Andrew A. Timmis has been named the 2022 Dredger of the Year at the WEDA Summit & Expo held in Houston, Texas.
Working for many years in the frontlines of environmental dredging, when Mr. Timmis joined WEDA in 2004, he became a member of its Environmental Commission. He helped develop policy for the group and pointed out the need to provide a program for regulators to learn about environmental issues. In 2017 he was asked to take the lead in developing a general educational course on the basics of dredging for navigation. As a result, a 4-hour Introduction to Dredging course was created. Named Dredging 101, the curriculum was completed in early 2018 and has been taught over 17 times to over 700 participants at different conferences and venues for regulators, engineers, consultants, and the US Army Corp of Engineers. At the 2018 WEDA Summit, he and the development team were recognized by WEDA for their work.
In 2018 Mr. Timmis was elected president of the WEDA Eastern Chapter, which was on a somewhat unsure financial base. Under his leadership with a new board, the format of meetings was redefined to include a single theme. A session called “Lunch with the Corps” was added, allowing attendees to meet one-on-one with the different USACE districts to discuss specific areas during lunch. This provided higher exposure for sponsors and became a larger social/networking event and also put the Eastern Chapter on firm financial footing. During the Covid “break,” he continued developing ideas and in 2021 an extremely successful social event was held at the Charleston Aquarium. Attracting record attendance, the chapter was able to donate $1,000 to the aquarium’s turtle rescue program, starting a new tradition for the chapter.
In 2020, Mr. Timmis was invited to join the WEDA Education Committee by Matt Binsfeld, the committee’s chairman. Mr. Binsfeld asked him to develop Dredging 201, a course on the Fundamentals of Dredging for the Cleanup of Contaminated Sediments. Creating a team from different consulting and engineering firms, academia, the USACE, and Environment Canada, the course is ready and was taught for the first time at the 2022 WEDA Summit.
Mr. Timmis has also participated in the preparation of various publications, such as the USACE’s “Thin Layer Placement Guidance for Wetlands and Near-Shore Environments”. He provided insight from a contractor’s perspective and reviewed the draft and provided photos and field information. The final document is to be released in the fall of 2022.
