Bean Stuyvesant cleared on dredging nationality case

Bean Stuyvesant cleared on dredging nationality case

   Bean Stuyvesant, a dredging joint venture that includes Dutch partner Royal Boskalis Westminster, welcomed a decision by the Court of Appeal upholding its right to perform work on domestic dredging contracts in the United States.

   The Court of Appeal overturned a lower court ruling that had supported a bid protest by Norfolk Dredging Co. against Bean Stuyvesant.

   The dispute centered on whether a company that is not U.S.-owned is entitled to work on government-funded dredging contracts by chartering U.S.-flag dredges.

   “The case originated with a bid protest filed by Norfolk Dredging with the Court of Federal Claims, that challenged a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decision to award a contract to Bean Stuyvesant, a joint venture of Bean Dredging and Stuyvesant Dredging, also New Orleans-based,” Bean Stuyvesant said in a statement.

   That protest involved the dredging of a navigational channel and related areas in Morehead City, N.C., and the Corps’ award of the work contract to low bidder, Bean Stuyvesant.

   The premise of Norfolk’s suit and the now overturned ruling of Judge Christine O.C. Miller of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, was that Bean Stuyvesant could not charter the U.S.-flag dredge “Meridian” to perform work on the Morehead City project because Bean Stuyvesant is not at least 75 percent U.S.-owned, the company said.