Dredging Industry Gathers In San Diego For WODCON
The Western Dredging Association (WEDA) hosted this year’s World Dredging Congress and Exhibition (WODCON) June 23–27 in San Diego, Calif. The 24th annual WODCON carried the theme “Dredging Towards a More Resilient Future.”
Day one of WODCON offered a lineup of short courses and commission meetings, with an evening reception sponsored by Women in Maritime Operations (WIMOs) and Ramboll followed by a welcome reception sponsored by J.F. Brennan Company.
Day two of WODCON began with a welcome address by Matt Binsfeld, president and CEO of J.F. Brennan Company and this year’s WEDA president, and a plenary address by Maj. Gen. Jason Kelly, deputy commanding general for civil and emergency operations for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Addressing the crowd, Kelly discussed how the Corps of Engineers is in the midst of a generational transition, with older personnel moving toward retirement and the need to train and equip the next generation of engineers.
“We’re losing institutional knowledge, but we’re also creating unprecedented opportunity for a rising generation of engineers, planners and leaders,” Kelley said. “This moment mirrors what many of you may have [experienced] or are experiencing in your own organizations. Change is hard, but it’s also when the next generation finds its voice. What better time? What better missions? And what better community for those voices to emerge than this?”
Kelly then emphasized how partnerships are key to maintaining the nation’s waterways and helping the Corps to fulfill its mission.
“Partnership may very well be the most important tool in our box,” he said.
That commitment to partnership is manifested in the Corps of Engineers’ “industry first” policy with regard to dredging.
“We know that industry brings the equipment, responsiveness and innovation to meet the mission,” Kelly said. “We’ve seen that firsthand in the expansion of the domestic fleet, whether through Great Lakes Dredge & Dock, Weeks, Callan, Manson, Cashman, Norfolk Dredging, J.F. Brennan and others whose capital investment has modernized the U.S. dredging landscape.”
The recapitalization of the private dredging fleet, though, doesn’t lessen the need for the Corps to replace its own aging assets, Kelly said, or the need for dredge capacity studies and waterway management studies.
“I encourage your candid feedback as we move forward,” Kelly said, adding that the Corps’ chief, Maj. Gen. Butch Graham, has challenged the Corps team to get its engineering and scheduling right. “This is about more than milestones,” he said. “It’s about predictability.”
WODCON attendees also heard from a panel of dredging company chief executives that included Lasse Petterson, CEO of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock; Eric Ellefsen, president and CEO of Weeks Marine; Fred Paul, chairman of the board and executive vice president of Manson Construction; and John Sullivan, CEO and managing principal of Callan Marine. The executives discussed their companies’ operations and capital investment strategies, their relationships with the Corps of Engineers and their use of various contracting models.
WODCON also featured a number of awards, including the dredger of the year, lifetime achievement and dredger on deck awards. Look to a future issue of The Waterways Journal for additional coverage and a feature on this year’s award recipients.
