INNOVATION AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO DEEPCHANNEL DREDGING

Presented at PORT FINANCING:Challenges & Solutions for the Americas, Miami, FL

by Geoffrey F. Uttmark, TransTech Marine Co., February 1999

The subject of my discussion today is innovative technology as an alternative to deep channel dredging. That’s the formal title. As I was listening to this morning’s speakers and some of your remarks, I concluded one of my slides more dramatically frames the issues. So the subtitle for this paper is “Some Healthy Heresy – Are Today’s Heretics Tomorrow’s Iconoclasts?” Before I get to my subject, I would like to dedicate my remarks today to the memory of Captain Bengt W. Tornqvist (1915-1998). Many of you have heard of this gentleman. He envisaged a type of ship that I am going to talk about today. He conceived it about fifteen years ago. As a consultant I had the privilege of working for him. Captain Tornqvist passed away last year and with his estate’s permission I am using some of his ideas today.

The ten heretical questions (Figure 1) were originally intended for the end of my presentation. But I was pleasantly surprised to learn this morning that the ‘natives are getting restless’, that questions are being asked at this point that should be asked as to whether or not we are going in the right direction regarding port redevelopment in the US. These questions, of course, apply to ports at both ends of a shipping line. So I think the ten heretical questions are broadly valid. I haven’t heard them articulated before. I’ve heard some of them today for the first time, and I think that is encouraging.

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