Great Lakes Announces Award of Three Projects on the Delaware River -- Combined Value of $99M

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation ("Great Lakes") (NASDAQ: GLDD), the largest provider of dredging services in the United States and a major provider of environmental and remediation services, announced today the receipt of three awards with an approximate aggregate value of $99 million for projects along the Delaware River.Valued at $77 million, the Delaware River Rock Reach award is a capital project that includes dredging approximately 320,000 cubic yards of rock and gravel material, which will deepen the main channel of the Delaware River. The Rock Reach project is the most difficult section of the river to deepen due to the hard rock areas within the dredging template. Work on this project is expected to commence at the end of the year and will be completed by December 31, 2017. The second award, valued at $17 million, involves dredging approximately 200,000 cubic yards of material and removal of approximately 10,000 tons of debris at the Philadelphia Naval Reserve Basin on the Delaware River. Work on this capital project will begin in 2016 and will be completed within the year. Finally, a $5 million award involves maintenance dredging of approximately 127,000 cubic yards along a portion of the Delaware River between Philadelphia, PA and Trenton, NJ. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia District issued these awards to Great Lakes during the third quarter and therefore will be included in the Company's backlog as of September 30, 2015. Great Lakes will utilize a drilling and blasting barge to pretreat the seabed rock formations in the river and mechanical and hydraulic dredges to complete these projects.President of Dredging Operations David Simonelli stated, "The Delaware River is a critical artery for trade into the Delaware River ports. Upon completion of this project, deep draft vessels will have access to the Philadelphia port facilities. Great Lakes has a long history of working on capital deepening projects. We recently completed the PortMiami deepening and are currently engaged in two deepening projects: the Arthur Kill reach of the Port of New York and New Jersey and the Port of Savannah entrance channel. We are pleased to have the opportunity to improve the efficiency of yet another important trade route. We look forward to working with the Philadelphia District of the U.S. Army Corps and Philadelphia Port Authority as we successfully execute this work."Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Berger added, "We are pleased with the Corps' increase in spending dedicated to major capital deepening projects. These projects will improve the efficiency of the transportation of trade cargo to the Delaware River ports, which is an important component to supporting the long-term sustainability and growth of the U.S. economy."