Pile Driving & Underwater Construction: Union Carpenters Meet Future Construction & Energy Needs

On May 23, 2022

Disclaimer: Sponsored content articles do not reflect the opinions of New Jersey Business Magazine or the New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

Gov. Phil Murphy’s billion-dollar infrastructure plan and massive push for wind power to meet 100% clean energy goals by 2050 will create a tidal wave of new construction requiring the best trained and most skilled workers to meet these ambitious objectives.

The Northeast Carpenters Apprentice Training Fund (NCATF), with the support of the Eastern Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters, is meeting the challenge of supplying the workforce through significant training initiatives: pile driving classes and a newly opened dive school.

The NCATF has poised its program to operate reliably and safely on highway construction, pile driving, drilling, marine and wind job sites.

Heavy construction pile driving and the new dive school components will serve as the training ground for union carpenters along the Atlantic seaboard. While the apprenticeship programs involve classroom instruction, most occur in the field, providing trainees with a hands-on, real-world experience.

The pile driving training and the on-ground component of the diving instruction is taught at the 13-acre Hammonton Carpenters Training Center. The underwater portion of the dive school is taught at the new Carpenters Dive School in Sicklerville, New Jersey.

The pile driving training is ongoing with about 700 students from along the eastern seaboard, including apprentices and journeyworkers who want to upgrade their skill sets. The dive school is set to start in late summer.

Pile drivers usually work at the beginning of a construction project creating foundations or retaining walls using metal, concrete or wood “pilings.” Divers are an elite group in the construction industry. They handle the unique challenges of working in changing marine environments.

And it is these skills that New Jersey’s construction landscape will need to meet the anticipated challenges. Whether it’s expansive infrastructure projects or the impending wind energy initiative, it is not a question of whether these dramatic changes will occur, only when indeed, the transformation has begun.

These goals, which will create jobs for state residents for years to come, can be achieved with the skilled help of union contractors and their skilled workforce. The Hammonton carpenters training center, with its four-year apprenticeship program for pile driving and heavy construction and its specialized dive training, will meet the new energy challenge with graduates who have the skills, talent and work ethic to meet these goals.

Disclaimer: Sponsored content articles do not reflect the opinions of New Jersey Business Magazine or the New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

Related Articles: