Weekly News Summary For February 19-25, 2007:
American Commercial Lines Inc., Jeffersonville, Ind., last week announced an agreement to purchase 20 towboats and related equipment from the McKinney group of companies for $15 million in cash.
The transaction, which is expected to close February 26, will double the size of ACL’s Gulf region operations. ACL will hire about 200 former McKinney employees, the firm said in the announcement.
The McKinney group includes McKinney Marine Inc., McKinney Towing Inc., McKinney Harbor Towing Inc., Slidell Towing Inc., McKinney Inland LLC, McKinney Salvage & Heavy Lift and McKinney Industries. Inc. The third-generation firm is headquartered in Baton Rouge, La.
Steve McKinney, president of the McKinney firms, said he was ready to downsize, and went to ACL with the offer. McKinney will stay in the fleeting and salvage business with three towboats, retaining the mvs. Andy McKinney, Tater Bug and Tuscaloosa, he said.
“I can do what I like doing and stay retired at the same time,” he told The Waterways Journal….
Tows going through the Melvin Price Locks and Dam near Alton, Ill. still face the 89-foot width restriction that was put into place on February 7. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hasn’t changed any of its restrictions. A two-foot-thick ice protrusion is on the wall on the upstream end of the main chamber at Mel Price, said Corps spokesman Alan Dooley.
Mel Price Lockmaster Mike Quinn said the ice is building up on lock walls, making it difficult for barges to get in. Barges are running two barges wide in six-packs, as opposed to a 15-barge configuration.
“Traffic has slowed down, because they’re unable to move as much commodities, because of the width restriction. They’re not able to push as many barges,” Quinn said.
“It hasn’t been this bad since I’ve been here in five to six years,” Quinn said. “We just have to be a little more cognizant of what’s going on the river.”
Maintenance crews have to chip ice off the walls and gates if the ice builds up too much.
Lock and Dam 24 and 25, Melvin Price Locks and Dam, and Locks 27 at Chain of Rocks are servicing 105-foot-wide tows….
Four long-term Ingram Barge Company employees have been arrested and charged with stealing or receiving stolen property valued at almost $100,000 following an investigation that began in December. McCracken County Ky., deputies and company personnel spent 15 hours recovering thousands of dollars worth of parts, equipment and tools from a garage owned by towboat engineer Joe Vlach during a raid at his residence outside of Paducah, Ky., February 7.
It took deputies and Ingram personnel two days to inventory and identify the items, many of which were still unused and in their original cartons. Included among the recovered items were hand tools, specialty air-operated tools, cabinets, parts, paint and heavy-duty industrial equipment, including air compressors and welding machines. Some of the items required a fork lift truck to move from the multibay garage where the stash was discovered.
McCracken County Sheriff’s detective R.J. Caskey said Vlach, 31, a 10-year Ingram employee, was on a boat when they raided his multibay garage and workshop, but was arrested when he turned himself in the following morning. Caskey told the WJ that it appeared that much of the allegedly stolen items had been used in a sideline business where Vlach constructed and sold utility trailers for hauling cars and all-terrain vehicles.
Ingram officials had become suspicious about some items missing from their Paducah warehouse and began their own investigation into the thefts before contacting the local investigators, Caskey said. It appears that the items had been stolen from boats and warehouses over several years, he said. Vendors had assisted in making the identifications by comparing purchase order numbers against shipping orders and other documents still attached to many of the boxes and cartons, some of which had never been opened, Caskey said….
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used explosives February 8 to break apart a barge stranded on the Ohio River.
The barge is still in gate bay number two, blocking the bulkhead slot. A piece of the barge wrapped around the pier when it initially hit the dam.
River Salvage Inc., the salvor, was able to shear the piece in half on February 14, but as of February 15, they were still working on removing that piece. The rate of water flow going through the dam is creating challenges for the salvor to remove the piece of barge that needs to be removed.
McAlpine Lock is open to traffic in both directions, so river traffic isn’t impeded.
The explosion broke the barge into several pieces, which was expected. The salvor is removing pieces from the area. The Corps is working from the downstream end, putting a work barge into the water to retrieve the pieces. Corps spokeswoman Carol Labashosky said the Corps couldn’t leave the bulkhead in place.
The Corps had the salvage contractor cutting the barge, which helped prepare it for separation. The conditions around the dam play a significant safety factor. “We have to make sure the safety plan is in place, and that removal is coordinated,” Labashosky said. “As far as the Corps is concerned, we’re keeping stakeholders abreast of what’s going on.”…
Maritime industry personnel, educators, and government officials have banded together under the leadership of the United Way’s School to Career program to explore the possibility of forming a New Orleans Maritime Charter High School.
The meeting was hosted by Sue Burge of the School to Career program, and is the brainchild of Burge and Kevin Gilheany, a retired Coast Guard officer who now is a marine industry consultant with Maritime Compliance International LLC.
“The maritime industry’s need for qualified employees is approaching a crisis, and it is only predicted to worsen in the near future,” Gilheany wrote to The Waterways Journal, saying it “is a significant step toward rectifying a mariner shortage and a school crisis.”
The consensus of attendees at the first meeting February 1 was that something has to be done to help the schools in New Orleans and the marine industry, and now is the time to do it, Gilheany said.
Burge and Gilheany first met in August of 2006 at a French Quarter Town Hall meeting where Burge was discussing her recent involvement in the new Priestly School of Construction & Architecture. Both agreed the time was right for a maritime vocational/technical school in New Orleans….
The Port of Houston Authority (PHA) enjoyed a “glorious occasion” on February 8, as about 800 maritime industry representatives, community and labor leaders turned out for the arrival of a new era in the containerized market with its “Berth at Bayport” grand opening.
PHA chairman emeritus Ned Holmes gave insights into the many benefits Bayport will have to offer, including sophisticated security systems, job opportunities, a commitment to workplace safety and responsible environmental stewardship, according to a PHA press release.
The Port of Houston dominates the U.S. Gulf Coast container market, handling 64 percent of the Gulf Coast market and 94 percent of the waterborne containers moving through Texas. Most of that activity moves through PHA’s companion container terminal at Barbours Cut, which opened in 1977.
Containers moving through Houston’s port have risen at an average rate of more than 10 percent in the past 15 years. Studies by the Texas Transportation Institute predict a continued annual worldwide container growth rate of 7.2 percent through 2010. Gulf Coast estimates for annual growth are as high as 13 percent….
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