Our history

Early days

While serving in the United States Coast Guard, Bart Hastings began working part time with a marine construction company rebuilding the Indian River Coast Guard Station. That is where he first found the industry.

After several years he began working with a fellow Coast Guardsman who had recently founded his own marine construction company. Together they built countless bulkheads and docks across the Delaware coastal area during a period of rapid growth.

Our beginning

Bart returned home to the Seaford area and founded Hastings Marine Construction. In the early days he worked by himself, building docks and bulkheads along the Nanticoke River. Those early successes were what grew the company into a premier marine contractor.

During this time Bart and his wife Debby had three children.

Expansion

Bart worked closely with DNREC testing and developing new methods of shoreline stabilization and erosion control as suitable alternatives to bulkheading and rip-rap. His passion for biology and his enthusiasm for environmental protection helped set the standard for living shoreline projects in Delaware.

Hastings Marine Construction remains at the forefront of natural living shorelines through innovative and proprietary methods.

A family tradition

Bart’s sons Ben and Luke joined the company full time, starting at entry level and working up into leadership — the same way their father learned it.

The next generation

Luke Hastings became President, carrying forward the standard his father set while modernizing how the work gets scheduled and run. Bart remains involved in the company he founded.

Expanded capabilities

Second-generation owned and led by Luke Hastings as President & Chief Executive, Hastings Marine Construction is licensed in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia and works across residential, commercial, municipal and infrastructure markets. It runs its own fleet of barges, pile-driving equipment and work vessels, sells and installs DECO Boat Lifts as the DECO dealer for Delmarva, and evaluates existing waterfront structures with underwater cameras, ROV, side-scan sonar, laser measurement and drone imagery.