Morton Bahamas Limited

Ship Berth Inspection | Inagua, Bahamas
project-overview

Damage Leads to Expansion

It started as a basic dive inspection for the Morton Bahamas Limited facility in Inagua, Bahamas. Then, after the S. T. Hudson team completed their initial report, additional damages were sustained including a collapse at part of the facility. In the six years following the initial inspection, S. T. Hudson helped to rebuild the facility, with services including diving inspections, engineering design, and construction management.

Morton-Salt-underwater-review

Project Goals

Initially, the goals for the project were to assess the facilities with a dive inspection and offer recommendations for improvement. After damage-causing events, the project goals expanded to getting the facility back in working order.

Assess With Dive Inspections

To get accurate insight into what rehabilitation and repair services would best serve the facility, our in-house diving team performed comprehensive dive inspections.

Repair & Rebuild

Multiple occurrences over the course of a few years caused sustained damage to the facility in Inagua, including damaged ship berths. S. T. Hudson was tasked with getting them back into operating order.

Key Data Points

1
Million Pounds

Of Salt Produced Per Year

3
Hurricanes

Our Team

Want to learn more about our individual expertise? Get to know our team!

Robert Hudson, P.E.

President and Chief Executive Officer
Robert Hudson, P.E. Robert Hudson, P.E.

Robert Hudson, P.E.

President and Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Hudson is a Senior Civil/Structural Engineer with over 40 years of experience in the design and construction of marine facilities. He has special expertise in construction methods and estimating. Over the course of his career, Mr. Hudson has been involved in a wide range of construction activities, with emphasis on marine structures, bridges and pile foundations.

In 2002, Mr. Hudson became President and Chief Operating officer of S. T. Hudson Engineers, Inc and continues to serve in that capacity today. Mr. Hudson is a Registered Professional Engineer in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. His professional affiliations include The Ports of Philadelphia Maritime Society; The Deep Foundation Institute; The American Society of Civil Engineers and The National Society of Professional Engineers.

James Thomas

Chief Operating Officer & Vice President
James Thomas James Thomas

James Thomas

Chief Operating Officer & Vice President

Mr. Thomas is Hudson’s Chief Operating Officer and has over 35 years of broad experience in the planning, design, management and execution of marine construction and dredging projects.

Mr. Thomas has worked on projects throughout the United States, the Caribbean, South America and the Middle East. His marine construction and dredging experience includes participation in small to large scale capital works, maintenance and superfund projects. He has managed the construction of offshore ocean ship berthing facilities as well as the construction of harbor berth facilities and terminals.

Leslie (Hudson) Gerhard

Vice President
Leslie (Hudson) Gerhard Leslie (Hudson) Gerhard

Leslie (Hudson) Gerhard

Vice President

Ms. Gerhard is Vice President at S. T. Hudson Engineers, Inc. with over 15 years of experience in marketing, company operations, contract administration, and client relationships. She is responsible for day-to-day office operations, generating and overseeing proposal submissions, marketing efforts, contract administration, team recruitment, and coordination and administration of the summer internship program. In addition, she is involved in developing business among existing clients and new clients which contribute significantly to corporate revenues.

Ms. Gerhard is part of the fourth generation of Hudson family members working in the business, working side by side with her father, Robert S. Hudson, P.E., to lead S. T. Hudson Engineers, Inc.

Anthony DePasquale, P.E.

Vice President & Director of Marine Engineering and Environmental Services
Anthony DePasquale, P.E. Anthony DePasquale, P.E.

Anthony DePasquale, P.E.

Vice President & Director of Marine Engineering and Environmental Services

Mr. DePasquale is a Civil & Geo-technical Engineer with 37 years of experience as a designer, construction manager, negotiator, and permitting consultant with the US Army Corps of Engineers. He specializes in the design, management, and construction of flood protection systems, bulkhead rehabilitation, and waste and dredge disposal containment facilities.

In addition, he has reviewed and negotiated numerous construction contract claims, permitting issues, and engineering disputes. Mr. DePasquale's experience has given S.T. Hudson valuable insight into the permitting process and environmental impact assessments from the viewpoint of the USACE and other regulatory agencies.

William Jenkins

Vice President & Director of Marine Services
William Jenkins William Jenkins

William Jenkins

Vice President & Director of Marine Services

Mr. Jenkins has 17 years of experience and a comprehensive knowledge of various hydrographic technologies and methods.

Recently, Mr. Jenkins has applied his talents to implementing various multibeam hydrographic surveys for ship navigation safety, object detection, clearance surveys, sediment transfer surveys, pre- and post-dredge surveys, and bridge inspection scour monitoring.

Project Details

As one of the largest salt producers in the world, Inagua is an ideal spot for Morton’s operations. Over a six-year period, three separate events devastated parts of the Morton Bahamas Limited facility. S. T. Hudson was there to perform inspections, develop repair plans, and oversee construction to get Morton Bahamas Limited back in operating order.

Located in beautiful Inagua, Bahamas, the Morton Bahamas Limited facility is an important site for their production operations. This large corporate entity has multiple facilities around the world, so the S. T. Hudson team was pleased to get the opportunity to work with them. They began work with a basic dive inspection that was competitively bid and subsequently won. Getting to the island and navigating within it proved to be logistically complicated: the remote location made it difficult to get there, and local resources are scarce. However, the S. T. Hudson team was up for the challenge. Our in-house dive team performed the initial inspection with no delays or issues and provided Morton Bahamas Limited with a formal report outlining the plan.

Shortly thereafter, a structural collapse and caused damage to part of the facility. The S. T. Hudson team remobilized quickly, going back and assessing the previous inspection to see what additional damages were present and how the plan would have to change. Based on the discoveries, the team created a repair schedule that would allow the facility to continue operations in certain areas while the repairs went on for the compromised areas. One of the bright spots of S. T. Hudson’s services was their ability to be creative with repairs and keep Morton Bahamas Limited operational while designing, bidding, and undertaking construction management with owner’s representation.

Five years after the repairs were initially completed, the Inagua facility sustained new damages. The S. T. Hudson team came back to the scene and reassessed the situation; helped them get them back online as quickly as possible; and then developed a repair schedule for the new facility, again focusing on keeping everything operational as the repairs went on. This presented more of a challenge this time around as the collapses were more significant, but the S. T. Hudson team was able to deliver.

One month after the completion of the repairs, another event occurred. Like the previous events, significant damage was endured. Once again, the S. T. Hudson team responded promptly to develop a repair schedule that got the facility back online.

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