Weekly News Summary For February 6-12, 2006:
The Northwestern Engineer District released the 2006 Annual Operating Plan (AOP) for the Missouri River. It describes how the dams and reservoirs on the Missouri River will be operated this year for a wide variety of runoff conditions. Revision of the master manual, which will talk about the long-term elements of operation of the Missouri River, will be released later on this month.
The annual operating plan includes two “spring pulses” to comply with the requirements of the amended 2003 biological opinion published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, provided there is sufficient water in the main stem reservoirs. To conserve water during the current drought, the pulses will be delayed until 2007 if there is not at least 36.5 million acre-feet (maf.) of water stored in the reservoir system on March 1 and May 1, 2006. With normal runoff conditions, the current forecast for storage on March 1 is 36.6 maf.
The opinion identified pulses in the spring from Gavins Point Dam as part of the reasonable and prudent alternative to avoid jeopardizing the continued existence of the pallid sturgeon, according to the Corps. The two-day pulses are intended to mimic the historic ebb and flow of the river to benefit the spawning of the endangered pallid sturgeon….
Rumors rippled rapidly along the rivers in Paducah within hours of a joint announcement that James Marine Inc. was purchasing Tennessee Valley Towing Inc.
Ronnie James, chief executive officer of multi-faceted James Marine, and Bill Dyer, president of TVT, each announced the signing of a formal sales agreement during specially called 10 a.m. meetings at each firm’s headquarters on January 25.
Within hours, Paducah area marine interests were calling and e-mailing each other to ask if they had heard of the sale and wondering among themselves if the company’s current office staff and shoreside personnel would be retained along with the vessel crews.
In a press release that same day, James Marine vice president Ronnie James assured TVT employees and other curious industry observers that no jobs would be lost in the transaction, scheduled to be closed by mid-summer.
“It is essential that we retain the management staff and towboat personnel that are currently with TVT,” he stated. “We do not have the personnel to manage a towing company; therefore we will need the personnel to make it work.” He said keeping the current TVT personnel was a “key factor” in the decision to buy the company. “We’re going to need all their management people.”…
Three barges broke away from the mv. Kelly Lee, owned by Magnolia Marine Transportation Company, Vicksburg, Miss., in Louisville, Ky., that resulted in one 80-foot bridge carrying 800,000 gallons of liquid asphalt striking a railroad bridge near downtown Louisville on January 26.
Lt. Cmdr. Jerry Nauert with Coast Guard Sector Ohio Valley said two of the barges, including the liquid asphalt barge that struck the railroad bridge, went through McAlpine Dam spillway. The barge that went over the spillway and did not come in contact with the bridge was captured with assistance from towboats in the area including the mv. River Wildcat, owned by Excell Marine Corporation, mv. Gail Ann, owned by Five M Transportation Company, and mv. Glenn R, owned by McBridge Towing Company. The barge that did not go over the spillway was secured with the help of the same vessels.
The river was closed for about 17 hours following the incident. Nauert estimates that there were about 12 tows waiting to transit the area that were delayed due to the closure….
Flush with record earnings in the fourth quarter and full year of 2005, Kirby Corporation said recently that it’s capital spending plans for this year include the construction of four towboats and 23 bank barges.
The company reported net earnings for the fourth quarter of $19.7 million, a 46 percent increase compared with the $13.5 million reported for the fourth quarter of 2004. On a diluted per-share basis, 2005 earnings for the fourth quarter were 76 cents, up from 53 cents a year earlier.
For the year, Kirby reported net earnings of $68.8 million, a 39 percent increase from the $49.5 million reported in 2004. Earnings per diluted share were $2.67, up 36 percent from 2004….
Golding Barge Line Inc. christened its latest towboat “on the fly.” The Vicksburg, Miss.-based firm caught up with the boat at Krotz Springs, La. while it was waiting for dock space at the Valero refinery January 11. Golding took delivery of the boat from Quality Shipyards LLC December 30.
“We had what I call a ‘workin’ christening,’” said Steve Golding, president. He and his son, Stephen Austin, the vessel’s namesake, along with his wife, Melody, and youngest son, John Reid, flew to Baton Rouge with Randy Martin-Nez, the firm’s vice president, then drove to Krotz Springs, where they met Rusty Moore, vice president of operations, and Michael Quinton, barge operations manager.
There, on the banks of the Atchafalaya River, Golding blessed the boat while his son, being a Mississippi State University pole-vaulter and javelin thrower, obliterated a bottle of champagne over the tow knee. The boat is named Stephen Austin Golding.
The new retractable pilothouse boat measures 94 by 28 feet with an eight-foot operating draft and an eye-level, when raised, of 28 feet. It was built specifically for the Ouachita River, which has three 84-foot-wide locks. In order to single-lock, the boat had to be narrower than usual.
“With our 54-foot-wide tank barge, our boat needed to be less than 30 feet wide,” Golding said. “On a round trip, single-locking is a tremendous time savings compared to double-locking, plus it’s much safer for our deck crews.”…
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