Posted on October 12, 2015
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (GLDD – Snapshot Report) has been awarded three dredging contracts along the Delaware River by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The combined value of these projects is around $99 million. The projects will provide deep draft vessels access to the Philadelphia port facilities.
The first project, worth around $77 million, is the Delaware River Rock Reach contract. Scope of work under this capital project includes dredging of approximately 320,000 cubic yards of rock and gravel material, which will deepen the main channel of the Delaware River. Work on this project will begin at the end of the year and is expected to finish by Dec 2017.
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock’s second contract is valued about $17 million. Per the project, the company will dredge around 200,000 cubic yards of material and remove of roughly 10,000 tons of debris at the Philadelphia Naval Reserve Basin on the Delaware River. Work on this capital project will begin in 2016 and will be completed within the year.
The final contract, which is worth around $5 million, involves maintenance dredging of approximately 127,000 cubic yards along a portion of the Delaware River between Philadelphia, PA and Trenton, NJ.
For these projects, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock will utilize a drilling and blasting barge to pretreat the seabed rock formations in the river and mechanical and hydraulic dredges. The projects will be included in the company’s fourth-quarter backlog.
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock has extensive dredging experience and a track record for successful completion of huge projects. Completion of these projects will improve the efficiency of an important trade route easing shipping of trade cargo to the Delaware River ports.
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock expects the addition of domestic dredging contracts to help in maintaining a strong level of dredging backlog. The company also anticipates the domestic bid market to accelerate in the third quarter of 2015. Internationally, several opportunities in the Middle East will aid growth.
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation is the largest provider of dredging services and also one of the leading providers of commercial and industrial demolition and remediation services, in the U.S., mainly in the Northeast. The company owns and operates the largest and most diverse fleet in the U.S. industry, comprising over 200 specialized vessels.
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the sector include China Railway Construction Corporation Ltd. (CWYCY – Snapshot Report), China Railway Group Ltd. (CRWOY – Snapshot Report) and Dycom Industries Inc. (DY – Analyst Report). All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
