The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Philadelphia District marked the completion of the hopper dredger McFarland's final operational mission during a ceremony at Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia on Friday, October 23.
The vessel has since entered pierside standby at Fort Mifflin. The district said she will remain there while Donnelly, the hopper dredger that will replace her, is under construction.
Over nearly six decades of service, McFarland removed material through dredging totaling more than 100 million cubic yards (76 million cubic metres).
She entered ready reserve status in 2010 and completed 11 ready reserve missions. One of these was 62 days of urgent dredging at the Mississippi River's Southwest Pass in 2015, which removed approximately 950,000 cubic yards (730,000 cubic metres) while private dredgers were committed elsewhere.
McFarland was launched in 1966 at Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point yard near Baltimore and completed in 1967. She served the Galveston and Jacksonville districts before transferring to Philadelphia in 1982 for maintenance work on the Delaware River and Bay.
The dredger can discharge material by bottom dumping, sidecasting, or direct pumpout.
Donnelly is being built by Florida-based Eastern Shipbuilding Group (ESG) under a US$256.9 million contract awarded in July 2023. Construction began with steel cutting in Panama City in April 2025, and the keel was laid on January 22, 2026.
USACE has scheduled delivery of Donnelly for late 2027. ESG has meanwhile given FY2028 for entry into service.
Donnelly will replace McFarland as the USACE Minimum Fleet East Coast hopper dredger and join the Ready Reserve Fleet.
