Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Corp.

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 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.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. 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 until being purchased by Madison Dearborn Partners in 2003 for $340 million. 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. Madison sold the last of its shares in 2009.

1992 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.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 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.

2008 Liberian tanker collision

In January 2008, the 117 ft. Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company mechanical dredge New York was struck by a 669-ft Liberian-flagged orange juice tank vessel named the Orange Sun in Newark Bay. 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. 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.

Jersey Shore

The company was hired to build dunes and berms along 22 miles of the Jersey Shore damaged by Hurricane Sandy.