Profile: Orion Marine Group, Inc. (ORN)

Orion Marine Group, Inc. (Orion) is a marine specialty contractor serving the heavy civil marine infrastructure market. The Company provides different marine construction services on, over and under the water along the Gulf Coast, the Atlantic Seaboard and in the Caribbean Basin. Orion's customers are federal, state and municipal governments, as well as private commercial and industrial enterprises. Orion acts as a single-source, turnkey solution for its customers’ marine contracting needs. The Company provides dredging, repair and maintenance, and other specialty services. Many of Orion's contracts encompass multiple services within a single project. On February 29, 2008, Orion acquired Subaqueous Service, Inc. (SSI). In January 2010, the Company announced that it has acquired T.W. LaQuay Dredging, LLC.

Marine Construction Services

Marine construction services include construction of marine transportation facilities, marine pipelines, bridges and causeways and marine environmental structures. Orion serves as the prime contractor for many of these types of projects and it has the capability of providing design-build services. Marine transportation facility construction projects include public port facilities for container ship loading and unloading; cruise ship port facilities; private terminals; special-use Navy terminals, and recreational use marinas and docks. These projects typically consist of steel or concrete fabrication dock or mooring structures designed for durability and longevity, and involve driving piles of concrete, pipe or sheet pile up to 90 feet below the surface to provide a foundation for the port facility that Orion subsequently constructs on the piles. The Company also provides on-going maintenance and repair, as well as inspection services and emergency repair, demolition and salvage to such facilities.

Orion's marine pipeline service projects include the installation and removal of underwater buried pipeline transmission lines; installation of pipeline intakes and outfalls for industrial facilities; construction of pipeline outfalls for wastewater and industrial discharge; river crossing and directional drilling; creation of hot taps and tie-ins, and inspection, maintenance and repair services.

The Company's bridge and causeway projects include the construction, repair and maintenance of all types of bridges and causeways over marine environments, and it serves as the prime contractor for many of these projects, some of which may be design-build contracts. These projects involve fabricating steel or concrete structures designed for durability and longevity, and involve driving piles of concrete, pipe or sheet pile to create support for the concrete deck roadways that Orion subsequently constructs on the piles. These piles can exceed 50 inches in diameter, can range up to 170 feet in overall length and are often driven 90 feet into the sea floor. The Company also provides ongoing maintenance and repair, as well as emergency repair, to bridges and pile supports for bridges.

Marine environmental structure projects include the installation of concrete mattresses to ensure erosion protection; construction of levees to contain environmental mitigation projects, and the installation of geotubes for wetlands and island creation. Such structures are used for erosion control, wetlands creation and environmental remediation.

Dredging services

Projects involving dredging generally enhance or preserve the navigability of waterways or the protection of shorelines through the removal or replenishment of soil, sand or rock. Dredging involves removing mud and silt from the channel floor by means of a mechanical backhoe, crane and bucket or cutter suction dredge and pipeline systems. Dredging is integral for capital and maintenance projects, including; maintenance for previously deepened waterways and harbors to remove silt, sand and other accumulated sediments; construction of breakwaters, jetties, canals and other marine structures; deepening ship channels and wharves to accommodate larger and deeper draft ships; containing erosion of wetlands and coastal marshes; land reclamation; beach nourishment and creation of wildlife refuges.

Maintenance dredging projects provide a source of recurring revenue as active channels typically require dredging every 1 to 3 years due to natural sedimentation. The frequency of maintenance dredging may be accelerated by rainfall and major weather events such as hurricanes. Areas where no natural deep water ports exist, such as the Texas Gulf Coast, require substantial maintenance dredging. Orion maintains multiple specialty dredges of various sizes and specifications to meet customer needs.

Specialty Services

Orion's specialty services include salvage, demolition, surveying, towing, diving and underwater inspection, excavation and repair. The Company's diving services are largely performed in shallow water with little to no visibility and include inspections, salvage and pile restoration and encapsulation. Its survey services include surveying pipelines and performing hydrographic surveys which determine the configuration of the floors of bodies of water and detect and identify wrecks and obstructions. Most of these specialty services support the Company's other construction services and provide an incremental touch-point with Orion's customers.