{"id":82812,"date":"2026-02-09T21:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shipping.einnews.com\/article\/890881907"},"modified":"2026-02-09T21:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:47:10","slug":"army-corps-eastern-shipbuilding-lay-keel-for-hopper-dredge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/09\/army-corps-eastern-shipbuilding-lay-keel-for-hopper-dredge\/","title":{"rendered":"Army corps, Eastern Shipbuilding lay keel for hopper dredge"},"content":{"rendered":"
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February 9, 2026<\/p>\n

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Russ Donnelly, representing the family of the late Ray Donnelly, the vessel namesake, watches welder Trace Taylor complete the keel memorialization plate. ESG photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Eastern Shipbuilding Group<\/strong> and its partners in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Royal IHC<\/strong>, held a keel laying ceremony Jan. 22 for the ongoing construction of the dredge Donnelly <\/i>at Eastern\u2019s Allanton, Fla., facility.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Eastern Shipbuilding Group<\/span><\/b> and its partners in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Royal IHC<\/b>, held a keel laying ceremony Jan. 22 for the ongoing construction of the dredge Donnelly <\/i>at Eastern\u2019s Allanton, Fla., facility.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis keel laying represents an important production milestone for our team and a clear demonstration of the progress being made on this vessel,\u201d said Joey D\u2019Isernia, chairman and CEO of Eastern Shipbuilding Group. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur workforce is executing this program with a strong focus on quality, safety, and schedule performance, and we are proud to be building a hopper dredge that will support the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers\u2019 mission for years to come. We value the close collaboration with USACE and Royal IHC as we move forward with construction.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The 320\u2019x72\u2019 Donnelly<\/i> is a Medium Class Hopper Dredge that has been under construction since April 2025. The vessel will replace the Dredge McFarland.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe keel laying represents the ceremonial start of a ship\u2019s life by commemorating the assembly of the initial modular construction units,\u201d according to a statement from Eastern officials. \u201cHistorically, shipbuilders would carve their initial into the keel to validate that the keel was properly laid and of excellent quality.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For the Donnelly, the initials went into the keel authentication plate with Trace Taylor, a welder with ESG, overseen by Russ Donnelly, representing the family of the late Ray Donnelly, the vessel namesake.<\/span><\/p>\n

Donnelly retired as chief of resource management for the Army corps\u2019 Philadelphia District in 2020. He previously received the Army Engineer Association\u2019s de Fleury Medal (Bronze Order) in recognition of his 44-year career with both the U.S. Navy and the Army corps. He was a key leader in the USACE Resource Management community and conducted a detailed analysis of the four USACE-owned dredges and the impacts of recapitalization on the national Civil Works program<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Construction of the Donnelly began in April 2025 with a steel cutting ceremony at Allanton Shipyard. Modular construction has proceeded since then, with unit builds and fabrication and assembly of various key components. Work is being carried out in close coordination with the USACE Marine Design Center, Eastern Shipbuilding Group, and Royal IHC, the designer of record. <\/span><\/p>\n

The new dredge is on track to be placed into service in fiscal year 2028. When complete the dredge will have a hull depth of 28\u2019 and draft of 25\u20196\u201d at maximum hopper capacity of 6,000 cu. yds. It will have a maximum dredge depth of 65\u2019 with the suction tube at 45 degrees.<\/span><\/p>\n

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… \u00e2\u0080\u0099s Allanton, Fla., facility. Eastern Shipbuilding<\/span> Group and its partners in … , chairman and CEO of Eastern Shipbuilding<\/span> Group.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u0080\u009cOur workforce is executing … statement from Eastern officials. \u00e2\u0080\u009cHistorically, shipbuilders<\/span> would carve their initial into …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}