Diamond Services cut, polishes proposed Gem project

Diamond Services Corporation is seeking to expand the services it offers by developing a 120-acre shipyard on the 1,900 acres of land the company owns in Terrebonne Parish.

Initial estimates put the project, Project Gem, at a cost of $31.5 million, but Diamond Services Corporation controller Tim Traegle said this number would likely change as the project develops.

“The project is actually going to come out a lot more cost efficient than we originally projected,” said Traegle. “It’s going to be less.”

The proposed project will feature two massive 640 metric ton travel lift cranes. The cranes are designed to work in tandem, something unprecedented until this point.

Current estimates put the cost of these cranes at $6 million, but Traegle said the cost will be higher than the initial estimates.

The Terrebonne Economic Development Authority reports the project could bring 30 to 35 construction jobs and 225 to 275 permanent jobs to the area.

TEDA expects the development could bring in approximately $30 million in new property taxes to Terrebonne Parish. However, this will likely change in the future, as the project evolves.

Other features of the proposed new shipyard could include a 350-foot long, 115-foot wide, 20-foot deep vessel lifting slip, a foundation and bulkhead for a large vessel lifting slip and an airplane landing strip for commercial deliveries.

These features are still in the project’s concept phase, however.

“The airline strip is part of the concept of will there be a need for that quick in-and-out kind of deliver service,” said Traegle. “We have the room to develop it, but we’ll just have to see how things unfold.”

Wallace Carline founded Diamond Services in 1962. The company is headquartered on 41 acres of waterfront property along Bayou Boeuf in Amelia.

The company’s services include dredging, pile driving, salvage work, fabrication, pipe-rolling capability and general oilfield construction.