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Dr. Luis Prieto-Portar, Piedroba’s Chairman and CEO has been invited by the World Bank to offer his dredging expertise and experience in developing training institutions for improving water infrastructure operations in the Bangladesh Delta. Additionally, Dr. Prieto-Portar will lead and produce a number of tenders for dredging works aimed at improving maritime navigability within the region. The World Bank’s initial mission will take place early December 2017, with numerous world transportation and engineering experts joining the effort. Dr. Prieto’s engagement is expected to last for 3-6 months.
Piedroba partner Jelle Prins is pleased with the opportunity provided to his firm’s CEO: “We’ve been in communication with the World Bank for some time now, discussing our assistance on numerous of their initiatives, and we feel that this particular engagement is a nice fit for Dr. Prieto. His affinity for South Asia is well known, always enjoying his work in the region. To be able to contribute to the wellbeing of the Bangladeshi by sharing his dredging engineering expertise through partnering with the World Bank will be as satisfying experience”.
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The Mexican Association for Port Infrastructure (AMIP), will be hosting a two-day dredging class jointly with Piedroba Consulting Group (PCG) on November 9-10 in Mexico City, Mexico. The class, focused towards Mexican Port Authorities, and Terminal Operators, will cover a variety of topics such as: optimizing adequate geotechnical investigations, the design of dredging projects, tender management, and claim prevention. Those interested in attending the class are invited to visit AMIP’s class website: http://www.amip.org.mx/web/POSTERDRAGADOS.pdf
Dr. Luis Prieto-Portar, PCG’s principal and CEO is pleased with the opportunity: “We’ve had the pleasure of teaching dredging classes in the United States and throughout Latin America, and to now be able to extend this educational service to the Mexican market is a great honor. Mexico, with all its ports on both the Pacific and the Gulf side has a long history in Port Development and Dredging, and for us to be able to make our contribution and share our dredging expertise through this promising partnership with AMIP is wonderful.” Piedroba Consulting Group (PCG) has been retained on three new engagements in the last months; managing two dredging tenders across the Caribbean, and a claims defense in the US. In addition to the new work, PCG had a fruitful WODCON (World Dredging Conference) week in Miami mid-June as one of the event’s sponsors, hosting a Dredging Seminar and presenting numerous technical papers.
PCG’s Jelle Prins is content with the recent progress: “The June-July-August months tend to be a bit slower for us generally, and to see this kind of headway tells you a lot about where we are as a company today. We continue to pursue a variety of attractive opportunities that have arisen in Latin America and elsewhere, and look forward to continuing to build on what already is turning out to be a great summer for Piedroba. We are moving full steam ahead”. Another initiative that’s currently on the agenda is an October Dredging Master Class, to be taught jointly with the Dutch dredging equipment supplier Royal IHC Holland. The Dredging Master Class “Dredging of Ports and Waterways”, to be held in Miami from 12-14 October, is designed for those who seek to expand expertise in the field of dredging. The Master Class is designed for port authorities, dredging contractors, technical specialists, project managers, superintendents, consultants, and senior management. For more information and registration, please visit: http://www.piedroba.com/dpw-mc16.html for more information. Piedroba Consulting Group (PCG) has been retained on three new engagements in the last months; managing two dredging tenders across the Caribbean, and a claims defense in the US. In addition to the new work, PCG had a fruitful WODCON (World Dredging Conference) week in Miami mid-June as one of the event’s sponsors, hosting a Dredging Seminar and presenting numerous technical papers. Piedroba Consulting Group and HR Wallingford teamed up to host an afternoon dredging seminar on June 12th in Miami that discussed adequate risk management throughout all phases of a dredging project.
In what turned out to be an interactive afternoon, contract owners, engineers and dredging contractors participated in productive discussions regarding adequate risk management and the optimization of risk allocation on dredging projects. Piedroba’s principal, Dr. Luis Prieto-Portar, was pleased with the participation: “Rarely do you get all these players from different segments of the dredging industry in a room, and talk about how to best perform dredging projects in a neutral and non-project specific way. We even had legal professionals who often handle dredging project related claims partake. “As a consultant, we often represent contract owners on a dredging project and have discussions with the engineers, contractors and other project professionals. “We frequently find that these type of interactions stand to benefit from having a better perspective of each other’s position, as well as having a more detailed understanding of what adequate risk management and risk allocation entails across the board. I feel all of us who joined might benefit from this when we work on our next project.” Companies in attendance included Van Oord, Royal Boskalis, Dredging International, Weeks Marine, AECOM, The Falcon of Doha, Manzanillo International Terminals, Trinidad Dry Dock, MTI Consultants as well as various other industry professionals. Piedroba Consulting Group (PCG) and HR Wallingford will be hosting a half day Dredging Symposium, designed for dredge project owners.
The primary focus of the course, set for June 12th at the Hyatt Regency Miami, will be to address topics for the improvement of the dredging project management process; from concept development through post project close out. The format of the course will center on lecture materials juxtaposed by periodic, open forum discussion to ensure full assimilation of content. All lectures will be delivered by a joint team of PCG and HR Wallingford instructors. Course Objectives: The objective of the course is to afford to each participant knowledge and understanding of the most modern and advanced dredge project management tools and methods currently available. Upon completing the course, each participant should have a fundamental understanding of these techniques and be able to apply them effectively on any dredge project. Training Program: The course will be divided into four lectures:
Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction conglomerate, currently holds a 12 year contract to maintain the navigability of the Rio Magdalena River in. Colombia for a stretch of 900 km. The project marks the largest dredging project in Colombia's history.
PCG’s role is to provide Risk Management services throughout all phases of the project, with the focus mainly being on the dredging taking place on the lower part of the river. So far, PCG has contributed by providing numerous strategic, contractual, and technical recommendations throughout the procurement phase, assisting with contract & contractor evaluation,, and dredge methodology feasibility assessment. In May, PCG also had the privilege of teaching a custom made week-long dredging class in Spanish to Odebrecht’s entire management team onsite. Luis A. Prieto-Portar, PCG's Chairman and CEO is content with the 1 year extension of the contract: "We are glad to be part of this prestigious project. We've partnered with Odebrecht on numerous projects throughout The Americas, and we look forward to continuing our consultancy with Navalena into the construction phase of the project. It's been a full summer for us with numerous dredging tenders, and we are excited about the progress on all of our engagements". Piedroba's Principal and CEO Dr.Luis Prieto-Portar has presented a paper on the Experimental Cryogenic Dewatering of Dredged Sediments at the Third International Symposium on Bioremediation and Sustainable Environmental Technologies. The Conference was being held in Miami on May 19-21, 2015.
The paper presented by Piedroba discussed the viability of cooling down the carrier water to close to freezing, as a viable method of dewatering dredge slurries. In warmer climates, both turbulence and loads of solids are two of the factors mainly contributing to turbidity. Another observation is that most dredge slurries have brackish carrier water. Dr. Prieto-Portar was able to summarize the results of preliminary experiments that used super cooled batches of hydraulically dredged slurries and noted some of their rheological properties. Piedroba today announced its 2015 class schedule for the Dredging Fundamentals Course held in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (The Corps). 2015 will mark the fifth consecutive year where the Corps has opted to partner with Piedroba in order to train those working on federal navigable waterway projects. Luis Prieto-Portar, PhD, PE, Piedroba’s Principal and Chairman will lead the team through classes in Savannah, GA, New Orleans, LA and Jacksonville, FL.
The Dredging Fundamentals Course is a partnership between Piedroba and The Corps’s Chief of Navigation & Operations Jeffrey McKee, and Corps Safety Manager Thomas Verna. During the week long class, the team will teach fundamental dredging theory and practice through lectures, field trips, group discussions, and examinations. The first class, to be held from February 2-6 in Savannah GA, will be entirely geared towards the Savannah Harbor Expansion Program (SHEP). With the Project Parntership Agreement (PPA) signed in October between the Corps and the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), and the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA), SHEP is currently underway. The estimated $706 million project includes dredging and environmental mitigation costs, and the competitive bidding process for the early actions to deepen the harbor has started. Dr. Prieto-Portar is looking forward to returning to Savannah for another class: “Two years ago we had the pleasure of teaching a first SHEP related Dredging Fundamentals Course in Savannah. We left being thoroughly impressed with the Savannah District’s leadership, and their proactive efforts to prepare their staff for SHEP. We are excited to return and working diligently to contribute to building and maintaining America’s infrastructure while maintaining environmental sustainability.” About Piedroba Consulting Group: Piedroba Consulting Group (PCG) is a Miami based marine infrastructure consultancy firm with an emphasis on dredging. Its efforts are mainly geared towards representing project stakeholders, usually the contract owner, on capital dredging work. PCG’s job is to ensure the timely completion of dredge work within budget, while mitigating any unnecessary risk factors or project liabilities. A total of $3 billion in total dredging projects and programs has been overseen by PCG. The firm specializes in comprehensive risk assessment, risk mitigation, and insightful problem solving. Dredging Today caught up with Piedroba partners Jelle Prins and Luis Prieto y Munoz to discuss their 2014 business year, the company’s experiences as well as new developments that have marked the year.
Both partners agreed: "This year has been outstanding for both our company and the dredging industry as a whole. We added new clients to our portfolio, and have been working for Ports, the Federal Government, Contractors, and Cruise Lines. There have been some positive developments in our industry. Both the passing of WRRDA (Water Resource Reform Development Act), as well as the exploration of attracting more private investment in water infrastructure in the U.S by means of WIFIA (Water Infrastructure Finance Innovation Act) are creating opportunities." For the complete interview interview please click here: http://www.dredgingtoday.com/2014/12/05/piedroba-recaps-outstanding-year/ Dr. Luis Prieto-Portar, Piedroba's Principal and CEO, recently was asked by Pile Buck Magazine to share the firm's experience on marine infrastructure projects. Piedroba, a marine infrastructure consultant, is often in a position to identify those approaches that make projects successful, and which processes cause conflict.
Incomplete or inaccurate geotechnical information will result in an unsuccessful project for both the Owner and the contractor. Some owners cut costs by providing minimal or incomplete geotechnical information, and expect the contractor to complete the investigation on their “own dime”. This “penny wise and pound foolish” ploy usually results in failed projects followed by litigation. Dr. Prieto-Portar further states: 'it is unfortunate that in our industry, the contractor’s knowledge is not commonly solicited for the design and preparation of the bid documents.' The entire article can be found on page 28-30 of Pile Buck International Volume 30 Issue 4: http://www.editionduo.com/publication/?m=6549&l=1 |
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