WEDA Newsletter – August 2017

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Norfolk, VA
 
We appreciate you taking the time to read the August 2017 edition of the WEDA Newsletter. As a loyal member or affiliate of WEDA, you are the driving force behind the association’s achievements and the reason for our ongoing commitment to use all feedback we receive and make necessary changes to provide you with additional membership benefits.
First, we would like to give a huge thanks to everyone that was able to attend and/or participate at the 2017 Dredging Summit & Expo in Vancouver, making it an overwhelming success and furthering the association’s strength as we now focus on the three (3) upcoming WEDA Regional Chapter Meetings this Fall. If you haven’t already made plans to attend your chapter’s meeting, you can find additional information below in the “Upcoming Meetings” section of this newsletter.

For those of you who have already provided us valuable feedback from the Dredging Summit & Expo ’17 of what worked well and what can be improved, we sincerely appreciate it. If you would like to provide feedback on the conference or in general, we’d love to hear your perspective and encourage you to do so by emailing us at info@westerndredging.org or by calling 949-422-8231.

If you were unable to attend the Dredging Summit & Expo this year, here are a few highlights from the conference, along with the links to access the proceedings and presentations.

  • 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Anthony Binsfeld, J.F. Brennan Company
  • 2017 Dredger of the Year Award is presented to Dr. Donald Hayes, UNLV
  • 2017 Environmental Excellence Awards winners
  • 2017 Safety Excellence Awards winners
  • DCA / WEDA Best Paper Award
    • Application of Laboratory and Modeling Tools to Design Thin Layer Placements Projects for Marsh Nourishment
    • Susan Bailey, Zachary Tyler and Timothy Welp, USACE
    • View paper
  • DSC Dredge, LLC Best Paper Award
    • Optimizing Construction Equipment for Long-Reach Excavation in the Dredging Industry
    • Ben Evans, Caterpillar, Inc
    • View paper
  • Anchor QEA Young Author Award
    • System Thinking Approach to Modernization and Maintenance of Aging Inland Waterways Infrastructures
    • Zeynep Alkas, Dr. Anna Franz, Ph. D., Dr. James S. Wasek, D. Sc., George Washington U.
    • View paper
  • WEDA thanks Paulo Rodriguez for his service and contributions to the Board and welcomes Julie Hile as a new Board Member
  • The spouse/partner program was brought back in Vancouver, which was restructured, organized and facilitated by Jennifer Ramsdell
  • View proceedings
  • View presentations
Hurricane Harvey

Many of our members and colleagues have been severely impacted by Hurricane Harvey and the subsequent widespread flooding that is still occurring. If you would like to support the victims from Hurricane Harvey, please CLICK HERE to be redirected to the Red Cross website donation page. Thank you.

2017 WEDA Membership Meeting 

WEDA’s 2017 Annual Membership Meeting was conducted at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver, BC, Canada on June 27, 2017. The meeting included an annual address by the President and Chair Marcel Hermans that covered WEDA business, financial and membership updates, committee reports, and a summary of key initiatives. To read the minutes from this meeting CLICK HERE

Upcoming WEDA Membership Change
Based upon the membership feedback received, we are in the process of upgrading our systems and changing the membership period from the current January 1st to December 31st cycle to an individual membership tracking system that will allow all memberships to be active for one full year. This way, your WEDA memberships will be valid for 365 days from the date you join or renew your membership. We’ll share more on this in the next few months.
If your WEDA membership is not currently active, CLICK HERE to renew today. If you’re uncertain of the status of your membership, contact us at info@westerndredging.org and we’ll be happy to assist you.
Eastern Chapter Meeting – October 10-12, 2017 – Providence, Rhode Island 
The WEDA Eastern Chapter is pleased to announce that this year’s annual meeting will take place on October 10-12 in Providence, Rhode Island. All meetings will be held at the Renaissance Providence Hotel conveniently located downtown, across from the State House and just steps from the Riverwalk shops, restaurants and the Amtrak station. For additional information, CLICK HERE to visit the Eastern Chapter webpage of the WEDA website.
Pacific Chapter Meeting – October 25-27, 2017 – Portland, OR 
The Pacific Chapter Meeting we hold their 2017 conference at the Embassy Suites in Portland, OR from Wednesday October 25th to Friday October 27th, 2017. For additional information, including registration and sponsorship opportunities, please visit the Pacific Chapter webpage by CLICKING HERE.
Gulf Coast Meeting – November 7-9, 2017 – Mobile, AL 
The Gulf Coast Chapter of the Western Dredging Association is conducting its annual meeting on November 7-9, 2017 at Mobile Convention Center in downtown Mobile, AL. The meeting will provide a forum for the exchange of information of interest to the dredging industry and its associates. Representatives from all areas of the industry, including regulatory, resource agencies, contracting, and manufacturing, will attend to discuss dredging economics, benefits, technologies and current issues. CLICK HERE for additional information.
Dredging Summit & Expo ’18 – June 25-28, 2018 – Norfolk, VA 
The 2018 Dredging Summit & Expo will be held at the brand new Hilton Norfolk The Main Hotel in downtown Norfolk Virginia. The dedicated conference website www.Dredging-Expo.com has been updated and will continue to get updated as new information is received. You can also stay up-to-date by installing the WEDA Mobile App at the Google Play Store or App Store..   IOS   |   Android
Eastern Chapter Meeting Oct. 10-12, 2017 Providence, RI
Pacific Chapter Meeting Oct. 25-27, 2017 Portland, OR
Gulf Coast Chapter Meeting Nov. 7-9, 2017 Mobile, AL
Dredging Summit & Expo ’18 June 25-28, 2018 Norfolk, VA
As Chairman of the WEDA Latin America Committee, I would like to salute Paulo Rodriguez for his many years of service as President of the Brazil Chapter and for all the progress he made in raising public awareness of WEDA throughout his home country.  
Jan Van Den
I am equally excited to welcome Jan Van Den Driessche as our new leader of what is now the South America Chapter.   As Paulo brought his wealth of knowledge and experience in the Brazilian dredging market to WEDA, Mr. Van Den Driessche will do the same and on a larger scale, applying his 22 years of experience at Jan de Nul as Senior Business Development Manager of Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal.  With the other members of the WEDA LATIN Committee, I look forward to collaborating with Mr. Van Den Driessche to drive WEDA’s mission throughout South America and to host a chapter meeting in Buenos Aires in 2018.  Welcome aboard, Jan. WEDA is a non-profit organization which is governed by a Board of Directors. Each month we list the profile of one of WEDA’s Directors. We hope this will help everyone get more familiar with the people behind our organization, make it easier for you to reach out to any of them when you want to, and in general to enhance our connections within WEDA. To view Jan’s CV, CLICK HERE.
~ Michael Gerhardt, WEDA Latin America Chair
Researchers from the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center developed a website dedicated to the practice of thin layer placement of dredged material, which is sponsored by the Dredging Operations Technical Support (DOTS) Program managed by Dr. Burton Suedel. The website consolidates all resources and information available relevant to thin layer placement. The purpose of this site is to provide a source of information, knowledge, and experience on thin layer placement of sediment or dredged material in aquatic environments. Our overarching goal is to share resources that will help promote successful thin layer placement projects.
 
Thin layer placement is broadly defined as the “purposeful placement” of dredged material with layer thickness ranging from a few centimeters to some fraction of a meter, as defined by the goals and requirements of the selected site. Thin layer placement can be used to meet a number of site- and project-specific goals, including efficient and sustainable sediment management, restoring local/regional sediment processes, sediment remediation, and habitat creation.
 
The website addresses a lack of technical guidance specific to thin layer placement by gathering relevant literature, as well as reports and data pertaining to undocumented case studies. Resources from other technical areas containing potentially relevant information have also been included. For example, the design and placement procedures for sediment capping, while developed for remediation projects, may be adaptable to thin layer placement.
 
This site is organized to facilitate sharing information about thin layer placement related to planning, designing, engineering, and operating thin layer placement projects in the full range of contexts where this technique would be applicable and useful. To this end, we invite visitors to this site to share their project reports and other documents related to thin layer placement, so that we can include them in this on-line library of resources and make them available to the broad technical community interested in this operational practice. A map-based portal is nearing completion that will allow users to input project information, locate projects and source materials on a map, access hydrodynamic and sediment data from other projects, locate navigation channels and dredged material placement areas, pull up dredging schedules, and download reports and data of interest. All of these tools are intended to facilitate the application of thin layer placement and, ultimately, to provide the basis for developing structured guidance for the practice of thin layer placement.
 
To access the website please click on the following link: https://tlp.el.erdc.dren.mil/ . For additional information and submission of case studies for consideration please contact Ms. Damarys Acevedo-Mackey, PE (email: Damarys.Acevedo-Mackey@uscae.army.mil, phone: 601-634-4845).
A reliable non-nuclear density measurement instrument has been on the wishlist of dredging managers for as long as nuclear densitometers have been in existence. Nuclear meters have been the standard due to their accuracy and reliability. But, managing the administrative requirements of the nuclear sources is an endless and cumbersome process that all dredging companies would love to see go away.
There have been several attempts at building non-nuclear density instruments that can survive the dredging environment over the years, but none have proven reliable and accurate. However, during the last couple years there appears to have been a breakthrough. One such source is from ITS. Based on electrical resistance tomography, the ITS (Industrial Tomography Systems) DENS-ITOMETER system can provide density measurements regardless of flow regime while simultaneously measuring the concentration of materials which are naturally buoyant.

After installation, the system is easily calibrated to deliver a concentration measurement based on the volume of solids flowing through the pipe. ITS software then converts the gathered concentration data to provide real-time volumetric imagery of the slurry’s flow regime and solid contents. The instrument is supplied as a hard-wearing pipe based sensor, with a standard IP67 instrument enclosure. Initial customer results have yielded an accuracy of >95% and validated the systems robustness, with over 25,000 operating hours needed before servicing is required.

New installations include an integrated modem allowing remote support. Density information can also be presented over a local area network. For more information contact sales.support@itoms.com.

Vinton Bossert, P.E.
Bossert Dredge Consulting, LLC
302-740-1841
We appreciate all the feedback that members have provided on how to improve WEDA and encourage each and every member to share their input as we continue to make necessary improvements. Feel free to provide me feedback directly, via email, telephone or in person at any of the upcoming Regional Chapter Meetings this Fall.
Sincerely,
Thomas P. Cappellino
tcappellino@westerndredging.org
WEDA Executive Director
(949) 422-8231 cell
Western Dredging Association
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