"We're kind of like firemen. We often don't know what we are going to be doing today," said president Don Dryden, 58, who worked 10 years as a wharf and dock builder before starting his own company in 1979.
In more than three decades, Dryden Diving has worked in radioactive and contaminated water; pier restoration; pipe, bridge, and dock inspections and repairs; and responded to emergencies as far away as Michigan, Wisconsin, Chicago, and Vermont.
Clients include the Port of Philadelphia and five nuclear power plants that are part of Entergy Corp.
The phone can ring at any hour of the day or night at Dryden headquarters, in Woolwich Township, near Swedesboro, with situations such as these: A ship has run aground and the Coast Guard wants it inspected. A tugboat's line is caught in a wheel. The water intake screen on a dam or power plant is clogged.
"We go to great lengths to make sure the right diver shows up on the job," said Dryden, whose wife, Patty, manages the administrative side and finances. "We very carefully match people to the job."
Three Dryden divers recently finished demolition and removal of debris at an old BP Refinery pier in Paulsboro. Other divers are repairing pilings on a bridge on Route 30 in Absecon, near Atlantic City.
A third dive team will be at Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York this week, removing trash and muck from the screens that filter water to cool the plant.
No matter the hour, or how frigid the water, Dryden divers are on call.
Just being a scuba aficionado in the Caribbean is not a qualification for commercial diving. These men (and a few women) are skilled welders, mechanics, and carpenters.
