On July 29, 2004 Atlantic Subsea, Inc. commissioned the Crane Barge Lehigh. It is currently engaged in pile driving operations at the CCMUA facility in Camden New Jersey. This vessel joins a fleet of other barges and marine rigs owned and employed by Atlantic Subsea.

The Lehigh is a 165 foot spudded barge equipped with a 100 Ton 88-B Bucyrus Erie conventional crane. This heavy duty crane has an effective working radius of 100 ft. The Madill deck engine has a three drum layout for its winches and a pull capacity of 50 tons. Barge width of 36 feet and a working draft of 5 feet makes the Lehigh accessible to most of the area rivers and inlets.

The engineering for the crane foundation and stability was provided by NDI Engineering of Thorofare, NJ. " It should be within all design guidelines for all of its heavy lifts," says Robert Hall the naval architect involved with the crane construction.

"The set up on the Lehigh will be just ideal for most of our operations. It has the most ideal lift capacity at 50 ft," was how Mr. George Daly the company superintendent described the rig.

"With all the various equipment laid out on the Lehigh, it should be capable of dredging, pile driving, cargo lifts and dive salvage support,"says Vinod (Vinny) Menezes, the company President & CEO.

Mr. Menezes thinks that the current market conditions dictate a dire need for medium to heavy marine lift cranes in the Philadelphia Metro area. Having the crane mounted directly on to the barge makes it safer adding substantial lift capacity.

Atlantic Subsea being based in Bridgeport, New Jersey has been a leading marine engineering contractor in the northeast. It undertakes projects involving pile driving, commercial diving, marine salvage and construction.

The Lehigh will be supplemented by the company's other marine rig Delaware, which is equipped with a 50 Ton P&H conventional crane. The Delaware is currently being used at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Atlantic Subsea has a full complement of engineers, technicians, dock-builders and divers. Their clients include the area Port and Bridge Authorities, all area power plants and refineries. Very often they are called upon by the USCG for their marine projects or on an as-need basis. In May of 2004, Atlantic Subsea installed the two Range Light towers for the U.S. Coast Guard, in Deepwater, NJ. Each of the support members of the towers weighed 90 tons. "It was a challenging task working out the lift strategies for the towers," confirms T.J. Champion, who was the Project Manager for the project.