Dredge Report: Contract Awards Soar in 2024
“Looking backwards, 2024 was a great year.”
That’s Michael Gerhardt’s assessment of the federal dredging market for last year, and Gerhardt, vice president of external affairs at Muddy Water Dredging, LP, and author of “The U.S. Dredge Report: An Analysis of the Federal Dredging Market,” has the data to back that up.
Gerhardt’s annual dredge report goes back more than two decades and tracks every single contract awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for dredging. The report breaks down the types of dredges used, the size of the dredge contractor, how many companies bid on each contract and more.
“This is my 21st year doing the report,” Gerhardt said. “It’s a passion of mine and a go-to asset for dredging contractors and anyone who wants to learn about the industry.”
Total dredging awards in 2024 continued a three-year growth trend to reach an all-time high of $2.4 billion. The next highest year was 2023, when just over $2 billion in dredging contracts were awarded. About 41 percent of all contracts were for hopper or dustpan dredges, with the balance going to cutter suction dredges, clamshell dredging and other smaller jobs.
Of the cutterhead and clamshell contracts, some 69 percent went to larger dredging companies. Still, 2024 marked a banner year for smaller companies, with their contract awards valued at close to $442 million, an 85 percent increase year over year. That 31 percent share in 2024 was the highest in a decade, the second highest on record and the largest dollar amount ever for small businesses in the dredging market.
In 2024, Gerhardt found an average of three bidders on unrestricted projects and small business set-aside projects. Hopper dredge projects averaged two bidders, while cutterhead and clamshell projects averaged three bidders. Some projects, though, attracted as many as five or six bidders.
Another interesting feature of the report breaks down the low bid for each project compared to the government estimate and the government estimated awardable range, or GEAR. Gerhardt found that, of 136 applicable projects, 88 had a bid lower than the government estimate and 123, or 90 percent, had a winning bid lower than the GEAR. That averaged out to a 25 percent savings per project when compared to the GEAR, which amounted to an $829 million savings of sorts to taxpayers.
Another bright spot in the report was the number of projects—116, or 70 percent of the program—that had a beneficial use of dredged material component. That’s up 4 percent from 2023. While the Corps has a goal to eventually beneficially use 70 percent of all material dredged, Gerhardt simply looks at the number of projects that have a beneficial use component.
The 2024 U.S. Dredge Report identified a total of 56 companies that won dredging contracts with the Corps of Engineers, including 20 large companies and 36 small companies. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company led all companies with 26.27 percent of all awards (32.2 percent among the large companies), while Cottrell Contracting Corporation was tops for total awards among small companies with 12.5 percent.
New to this year’s report is a breakdown between hopper projects and non-hopper projects.
Assessing the recent new-build programs of many dredging companies, Gerhardt said, while that’s been driven in part by the need to build replacement capacity, it also reflects growing demand. New companies entering the market also reflect that demand.
And while the president’s budget proposal and the Corps’ 2025 work plan have made headlines of late, the Corps has historically fared well with the House and Senate budgetary process. In 2022, the Corps’ final operations and maintenance (O&M) budget was about $4.5 billion—$500 million above the president’s budget request. In fiscal year 2023, that final number for O&M ticked above $5 billion despite a president’s budget request of $4.3 billion. In 2024 and in the continuing resolution for the 2025 budget year, the O&M account stood at just over $5.5 billion. While the 2026 president’s budget has penciled in $3.98 billion for the Corps’ O&M account, Congress of late has a track record of increasing that number.
Editor’s note: Anyone interested in learning more about the report can contact Gerhardt through LinkedIn.
