NEW CAPE FEAR AND ELLICOTT JOINT VENTURE
December 1996. Baltimore, Maryland - Ellicott International and Cape Fear Dredge Company have recently entered into a joint venture agreement to provide the "SEADOZER", a recently patented dredging system, to meet the needs of their worldwide customers. SEADOZER utilizes directed prop wash, a dredging technique which is currently used by the Portland District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after being thoroughly tested and approved by the USACE Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies.
SEADOZER is a unique, computer-controlled dredge capable of working in breaking surfs and responding quickly to multiple, wide separated shoal areas. SEADOZER can work "on the beach" during shoreline restoration operations and the deepening of shallow breaking inlets.
During normal operations SEADOZER will be underway at 0-2 knots per hour, dislodging and transporting bottom material at a controlled rate in the desired direction. SEADOZER can also maintain position over an isolated sandbar, liquefying and transporting material to the desired location either outside the navigational channel or into deeper water. No other dredge in the world combines these operating capabilities.
Advantages Over Currently Available Technology
- Low initial, operating, maintenance and mobilization cost.
- Enhanced mobility & portability, no anchors, spuds or discharge pipe
- Shallow water operating capability (0 - 10 meters)
- No support vessels required
- Operates effectively in rough seas, less down time
- Able to operate in strong currents (tidal - rivers/ 0 - 5 knots)
- Responds quickly to widely separated shoal areas
- Crew size consists of only a pilot and engineer
- No disposal site required
- Minimal environmental impact (extensively tested by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)
Enhanced Operating Sectors
- Maintaining shallow waterways in a quick and cost effective manner
- Maintaining ship berths
- Removal of shoaled areas at ocean inlets, river junctions and bends
- Replenishing beaches with near shore material
- Protecting coral reefs by removing suffocating sediment from the reef system
- Protecting exposed beaches by establishing offshore sand berms
- Conducting sand bypass services for migratory inlets
- Feeding fixed plant dredges by sweeping sediments towards them
- Clearing harbors and waterways of ice
- Capping of hazardous material disposal sites
The Seadozer’s rapid response capability, low initial, operating and maintenance costs, and its rugged, "surf-friendly" construction makes this dredge very cost effective. No other dredge in use today can operate in as many diversified roles. Seadozers will meet your dredging needs at the very lowest possible costs.
Source: Ellicott Press Release December 3, 1996
