Weekly News Summary For February 8–14, 2009:
After a five-day closure of both chambers of the Greenup Locks and Dam at Mile 341 of the Ohio River when a miter gate failed on the main 1,200-foot chamber, the Corps of Engineers opened the 600-foot-long auxiliary lock chamber on January 31, only to close it again briefly after about seven lockages while the Corps ran tests on the damaged portion of the main gate. The auxiliary chamber opened again February 2.
The 51-year-old main lock chamber remained closed. The miter gate failed because of a broken anchor bar, which operates like a hinge. The Corps estimated repairs to the main chamber will take six to eight weeks
On its Web site, the Huntington Engineer District said, “Crews are continuously monitoring the gate to ensure (the gate’s) stability and should readings indicate concern, there is the potential for future periodic closures.”
The closures came three months after a miter gate fell off its hinges at Markland Locks and Dam near Warsaw, Ky. That gate is still being repaired. Both facilities are past their 50-year design life span.
The latest closure is having an impact on businesses in the area that depend on waterborne transportation. By the morning of February 2, 23 tows were waiting to pass, according to local station WSAZ. The auxiliary chamber takes four hours for a tow to pass through, compared to 45 minutes for the main chamber. As a result, barges are piling up and supply chains are slowing….
One-way vessel traffic in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) resumed in earnest on January 29, and in just over 18 hours, 149 tows were moved in one-way traffic through Port Arthur, Texas, site of the barge and ship collision on January 23 that resulted in a 462,000-gallon crude oil spill in the Sabine-Neches Waterway.
“We opened the waterway for westbound only traffic at noon Friday and opened for eastbound traffic at 9 p.m. Friday,” said Mike Measells, VTS Port Arthur director. Traffic was required to move at no-wake speed. The totals were 80 westbound and 69 eastbound tows, and “another dozen or so tows and several deep-draft sea-going vessels, including one Suez-Max tanker, were moving within the system.”
Measells, a former towboat captain, described the weather conditions as “terrible, with high winds, some rain, a ‘norther’ blowing in. The tide was running out fast and the PORTS meter at one point recorded 4.2 knots ebb at the 180-foot-wide West Port Arthur Bridge, which all of the east- and west-bound tows had to pass through. Even more, over 75 percent of the transits were at night.”
He had high praise for the boat crews.
“No accidents, no incidents, no complaints that I know of,” he continued. “This is a real credit to the skill and professionalism of our inland mariners.”…
The Nashville Engineer District has awarded a $40,721,812 contract for construction of the upstream nine concrete monoliths of the new 1,200-foot lock at Kentucky Lock and Dam on the Tennessee River.
The contractor is Thalle Construction Company Inc., Hillsborough, N.C.
The contract was awarded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and includes the base contract and the first two of 10 options, which will permit construction of all nine upstream concrete monoliths and complete the most upstream monoliths to the full 100-foot height. A concrete monolith is an individual section of a lock wall.
Work on the two-year contract should begin around March 1, the Nashville District said….
Inland towboat operators are familiar with regulations requiring Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) aboard their commercial vessels, and they have come to understand the importance of the information exchanged with other nearby vessels. However, there are many other applications for the information that can also be valuable to port officials, traffic managers, midstream fuel and grocery suppliers, emergency responders and shippers needing accurate, up-to-the-minute locations for cargoes or vessels.
Many, but not all, commercial vessels now carry AIS transponders. Forthcoming Coast Guard regulations may make them mandatory on commercial vessels over 65 feet in length with greater than 500 hp. Also expected to be included in future requirements will be many passenger vessels that to this point have been exempt.
Towboat pilots and captains have come to appreciate the ability to have navigation information instantly available as they make important navigational decisions in restricted channels or busy harbors. It is common to hear pilots on the VHF radio making passing or meeting arrangements based upon where their “black boxes” have predicted their arrivals at strategic bends or narrow channels. There are also many new ideas for the application of AIS information, including virtual AIS for aids to navigation and as a supplement to on-scene coordination for search and rescue operations.
Vessel traffic coordinators, cargo and vessel dispatchers, port directors, security personnel and other vessel service providers are beginning to also take advantage of this technology to provide important information to assist in planning their logistics. However, it has required the installation of an AIS receiver and a charting program, which can cost between $500 to $750 total, and the display is restricted to only what is within range of the receiver, typically a 25-mile radius.
Maritime Information Systems Inc. has made it possible for portside operators to eliminate this equipment cost by offering a subscription-based Web VTS (Internet Vessel Tracking System) to monitor local harbor activity while also having access to other port sites. The enterprise has been developing a network of shore-based AIS tracking systems since 2006 and now has more than 250 stations operating around the world. New inland waterway stations are coming on line each week….
Orion Marine Group has acquired T.W. LaQuay Dredging for $60 million in cash, Orion announced January 28.
T.W. LaQuay is a specialty dredging services provided that focuses on near-shore dredging projects, primarily along the Texas coast, utilizing hydraulic cutter suction pipeline dredging. Formed in 2000, the company has worked on dredging projects inn the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, ports and inlets, as well as wetland creation and shoreline stabilization.
“This is an exciting addition to the Orion Marine Group family,” said Mike Pearson, Orion president and chief executive officer. “We are proud to have the opportunity to continue the outstanding reputation T.W. LaQuay Dredging has developed.”
As part of the acquisition, Orion will take over T.W. LaQuay Dredging’s fleet of dredges and associated equipment, including two hydraulic cutter suction dredges, three portable dredges, and several other pieces of associated equipment. Two more state-of-the-art hydraulic cutter suction dredges, due to be commissioned this year, were also acquired. Orion plans to deploy the dredges throughout its current operating area.
Also included in the transaction is most of the real estate used in the operations of T.W. LaQuay Dredging, including an office and waterfront yard in Port Lavaca, Texas, and a waterfront yard near Houston, Texas….
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