The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District’s deep-draft hopper dredger McFarland is back home at Fort Mifflin after undergoing extensive repairs in Norfolk, VA.
According to USACE’s latest announcement, the dredger will soon be working again on the Delaware River.
One of four oceangoing hopper dredgers owned and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part the Corps’ “minimum fleet” for national security and safe navigation, the McFarland is the only dredger in the world with triple capability for direct pumpout, bottom discharge and sidecasting or boom discharge.
Designed by USACE Marine Design Center, it was built in April 1967. Its name honors the late Arthur McFarland, a Corps of Engineers authority on dredging.