navigation search great lakes dredge and dock company type public traded as nasdaq gldd industry heavy construction contractor founded 1890 headquarters oak brook illinois united states area served worldwide key people jonathan w. berger ceo services dredging land reclamation demolition revenue 731.41 million usd 2013 operating income 51.4 million usd 2013 net income 19.9 million usd 2013 1 website www.gldd.com great lakes dredge and dock company is an american company providing construction services in dredging and land reclamation currently the largest such provider in the united states . gld & d operates primarily in the united states but conducts one quarter of its business overseas . it is currently based in oak brook illinois . contents 1 history 1.1 1992 chicago flood 1.2 2008 liberian freighter collision 1.3 jersey shore 2 operations 3 references 4 external links history edit great lakes dredge & dock company project manager brian puckett explains dredging operations to us vice president joe biden aboard dredge 54 on the delaware river in philadelphia 2 the company was founded in 1890 as the partnership of william a. lydon & fred c. drews and was named lydon & drews dredging company . early projects included the shoreline structures for the chicago s columbian exposition . the company soon had satellite operations throughout the great lakes . it was renamed the great lakes dredge and dock company gld & d in 1905 . between 1900 and 1950 gld & d undertook major projects such as the sabin lock straightening of the chicago river west of the chicago loop the michigan avenue bridge foundation landfill and reclamation of the area where the adler planetarium & astronomy museum soldier field meigs field and field museum of natural history stand today in chicago and harbor work for the naval station great lakes . 3 during the second world war gld & d constructed the macarthur lock . after the second world war gld & d participated in extensive oil related dredging in the gulf of mexico . in 1979 great lakes international inc. gli was included as a holding company for gld & d. from 1985 to 1998 gli was acquired by several companies to include itel corporation blackstone dredging partners and vectura holding company citigroup until being purchased by madison dearborn partners in 2003 for 340 million . 3 4 it was spun off a publicly traded company on nasdaq in 2006 after the madison s special purpose acquisition company aldabra acquisition corp merged with it . aldabra in turn changed its name to great lakes dredge and dock . 5 madison sold the last of its shares in 2009 . 4 1992 chicago flood edit main article chicago flood in 1992 a barge operated by gld & d was driving new pilings for the kinzie street bridge in chicago when it accidentally punched into an unused service tunnel passing beneath the river at that point . the tunnel flooded in turn flooding the basements of many buildings in downtown chicago ; the event is commonly known as the chicago flood . work on the bridge was actually completed the prior year october 1991 . in february 1992 local cable company technicians discovered the breach and reported it to city officials . gld & d was never made aware of the breach until april 1992 after severe leakage into the tunnel system had begun . the work performed on the kinzie street bridge conformed to specifications and did pass city inspection upon completion in 1991 . in the lawsuits that followed great lakes was initially found liable but was later cleared after it was revealed that the city was aware the tunnel was leaking before the flood and the city had also not properly maintained the tunnel . 6 7 in addition the case went the united states supreme court in jerome b. grubart inc. v. great lakes dredge & dock co. 513 u.s. 527 1994 which ruled that since the work was being done by a vessel in navigable waters of the chicago river admiralty law applied and great lakes liability was greatly limited . 8 2008 liberian freighter collision edit in january 2008 a 117 ft. great lakes dredge and dock company dredge in newark bay was struck by a 669 ft liberian flagged orange juice freighter named the orange sun . newark bay had to be closed for five hours by the u.s. coast guard until damages to the gld & d dredge were mitigated . the dredge had begun to take on water and a diving crew was sent in order to make repairs . 9 in december 2009 the national transportation safety board issued a report that blamed the orange sun for the accident . the orange sun s master had not informed the captain or crew about the ship s tendency to deviate from its course . 10 jersey shore edit the company was hired to build dunes and berms along 22 miles of the jersey shore damaged by hurricane sandy . 11 operations edit great lakes dredge and dock conducts most of its operations within the united states and 25 % of its operations abroad particularly in the middle east . gld & d dredging operations consist of deepening and maintaining waterways shipping channels and ports ; creating and maintaining re nourishing beaches ; excavating new harbors ; reclaiming land in the water or improving low lying land areas ; restoring aquatic and wetland habitats and excavating pipeline cable and tunnel trenches . 3 in 1990 gld & d renewed its overseas efforts and created a foreign division . by 1993 gld & d was awarded significant projects in the middle east . soon projects in europe africa mexico and south america would begin as well . gld & d also provided excavation and reclamation for the oresund bridge connecting denmark and sweden . 3 in 2003 gld & d performed dredging of the umm qasr port in iraq . gld & d also constructed a port in hidd bahrain around the same time . 3 in june 2010 gld & d under the shaw environmental and infrastructure group began constructing sand berms off the louisiana coast to limit the amount of approaching oil in the gulf of mexico from the deepwater horizon oil spill . 12 references edit great lakes reports fourth quarter and year end financial results . great lakes dredge and dock . 25 february 2014 . retrieved 21 november 2014 . vice president tours delaware river project . dredgingtoday.com . retrieved december 2014 . check date values in access date help a b c d e gldd history a b http www.chicagobusiness.com article 20090812 news01 200035112 madison dearborn cashing out of great lakes dredge http www.aldabracorp.com http www.fundinguniverse.com company histories great lakes dredge dock company history http articles.chicagotribune.com 2007 01 21 business 0701210120 1 underground flood dredging chicago river https supreme.justia.com cases federal us 513 527 case.html http www.nytimes.com 2008 01 25 nyregion 25collide.html accident closes major shipping channel for hours federal report blames ship carrying orange juice for newark bay collision last year augenstein seth december 17 2014 . 186m to build dunes berms on 22 miles of jersey shore . the star ledger . retrieved 2014 12 16 . great lakes dredge & dock corporation begins work on first sand berm off the louisiana coast external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title great lakes dredge and dock company & oldid 737598537 categories great lakes region u.s. economy of the midwestern united stateseconomy of the northeastern united statesprivate equity portfolio companiesmadison dearborn partners companiesdredging companiescompanies established in 1890companies listed on nasdaqhidden categories cs1 errors datesuse dmy dates from january 2012 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 3 september 2016 at 21 48 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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