Oxnard, California, October 2, 2003: Eagle North America, Inc. a dredging and material dewatering company headquartered in Augusta, GA, recently purchased a 10" Barracuda Class dredge from Dredging Supply Company. Dennis Allen, General Manager of Eagle North America's Western Division, described the two key aspects of this dredge. First, the DSC Barracuda Class dredge was built with a California Air Resources Board (CARB) certified Tier II engine to meet the strictest air quality standards in the United States. The second feature is the Barracuda's flexibility and versatility to be utilized either as a swing wire or swinging ladder dredge.
Eagle North America purchased the Barracuda Class dredge to move 75,000 cubic yards of sand and silt from a pump intake canal at a California power generation plant. Allen estimated this job would take approximately four months at this site. The California Air Resources Board is a California state government agency responsible for implementing air quality statutes and the law requires all stationary diesel engines meet certain, specified standards. Regarding this dredge, the standard Barracuda had to be modified with a Tier II engine for compliance.
The job conditions, due to the channel configurations, required the dredge to have ability to function both as a swing wire and swinging ladder dredge. The DSC Barracuda Class dredge converted to a swing ladder dredge with greater versatility than others. This feature allows Eagle North America, as a contractor, to perform work in other narrow and confined spaces such as marinas, boat slips, as well as in narrow channels.
"We were impressed with Dredging Supply Company's responsiveness from our initial contact with Ed Bond of Advanced Marine, a DSC Sales Representative, to the delivery and start-up," explained Allen. "We had an extremely tight delivery deadline. DSC met our time constraints," continued Allen.
"To configure the Barracuda as Eagle North America needed, DSC removed the existing Caterpillar 3406 DITA engine and replaced it with a Caterpillar C15 E-series diesel engine," said Bob Wetta, Chief Operations Officer/ Sales, at Dredging Supply Company. "The two engines are physically similar, but the C15 boasts an additional 15 hp with an intermittent rating of 475 bhp @ 2100 rpm. An air to air after- cooler system was also required to cool the C15 engine. Further DSC had to also modify the existing cooling system and reroute additional fuel and water plumbing," continued Wetta.
DSC, headquartered in Reserve, Louisiana, manufactures and delivers dredges to companies located worldwide.