A new new 27-inch cutter suction dredge for Mike Hooks, LLC has been launched at Southwest Shipyard in Galveston, Texas.
The Lorraine Hooks, named after the wife of the company's founder Mike Hooks, will now get a ladder gantry and anchor boom stops, a fresh coat of paint in Houston, and then return to Galveston for equipment install.
Once outfitted and complete, the 300- by 50-foot Lorraine Hooks, with a dredging depth of 75 feet, will be deployed on both coastal restoration and navigation dredging projects in Louisiana and across the region to improve climate resiliency and strengthen maritime infrastructure.
The dredge will be state-of-the-art, designed to meet the latest industry standards in safety, comfort, efficiency, and production. It will house "home-away-from-home" living quarters with A60 fire rating insulation and constructed on vibration mounts to reduce fatigue for the crew from harmonic vibrations and noise. There will be a NOVEC fire suppression system in the engine room and control rooms. A cutterhead platform will allow safe operations while maintenance is performed, and anchor booms will reduce human exposure to anchor handling. Operation monitoring displays and tablets will be throughout the dredge and quarters.