Capsule News Summary For February 21-27, 2005:
The last of four Coast Guard towing vessel inspection public meetings was held in St. Louis last week for industry personnel to comment on the implementation of the new statute that adds towing vessels to the list of vessels subject to inspection.
The meetings were also held in Washington, D.C., Oakland, Calif., and New Orleans earlier this
year.
To focus public comments from those in attendance, the Coast Guard posed seven questions on the scope and content of the forthcoming regulations. The questions, which were included in the December 30 Federal Register, included topics such as using existing standards for other types of inspected vessels for incorporation into the new regulations for towing vessels, prescribing different standards for towing vessels than for other types of inspected vessels, circumstances for inspected towing vessels to be exempt from requirements as an inspected vessel, if existing towing vessels should be given time to implement requirements or be "grandfathered" altogether or vary, if existing towing vessels should be treated differently than towing vessels yet to be built, if a safety management system, if developed, should be required for all inspected towing vessels and if a safety management system is used, what elements should be included.
Craig Philip, president and chief executive officer of Ingram Barge Company and past chairman of American Waterways Operators (AWO), spoke in regards to AWO's Responsible Carrier Program (RCP) success, considering the towing industry's best practices already in place and safety management programs applying old and new vessels.
"Our membership is united in supporting this effort enthusiastically because we all feel strongly that the safety management system is the key ingredient to making our industry safer and justifies inviting the Coast Guard to help require universal adoption of such by our industry," he said….
Civilian employees of the Army Corps of Engineers are leaving behind their jobs, families and familiar lifestyles to volunteer in Iraq and Afghanistan to assist these countries in rebuilding, or in some cases, building an infrastructure in the war-torn region.
Their desire to help out the fledgling democracies and further the global mission of the Corps has led them to volunteer. No matter what dangers were ahead, all were eager to put their personal skills to use. In fact, a number of them have gone back for a second "tour." The people they met while abroad and the community of which they were short-time residents was truly a unique experience.
In Afghanistan, the Corps established the Afghanistan Engineer District (AED) on March 1, 2004. Prior to that the Corps had an office in Kabul, where the headquarters are now located. Currently the Corps operates field offices in Bagram, Heart, Mazar-e-Sharif, Gardez and Kandahar in addition to other resident offices at project sites. There are about 86 civilians and military volunteers in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
In Iraq, the Gulf Region Division was activated on January 25, 2004, and it operates three district offices located throughout Iraq and a division headquarters in Baghdad. Even before its activation, a number of Corps employees were in Kuwait addressing the various engineering challenges that were ahead. About 700 employees of the Corps are working in the division….
Nearly 300 farmers, businesspeople and community leaders attended the dedication of the new Agricultural Export Center at the Port of Victoria on January 26.
The facility cost nearly $4 million to complete and is intended to help area farmers distribute their products more efficiently by rail or water to domestic and international markets. The state-of-the-art facility was built as a joint partnership between the Port of Victoria and the Farmers Cooperative of El Campo.
"This is a very special day for a lot of people and has been years in the making. The Port of Victoria is located in the middle of one of the largest agricultural regions in Texas, and this facility gives farmers the option to select the mode of transportation that best suits their needs. At the end of the day, three things made this project successful: partnership, partnership and partnership," said Port of Victoria executive director Howard Hawthorne….
With over ten years of service and thousands of river miles under its keel, the mv. Mississippi was pulled out of the water to improve the cooling system for its engineering plant. The Corps' flagship towboat is expected to go back into the water early next month after spending nearly four months in drydock.
The system is not just new to the mv. Mississippi, but unique to river vessels in the United States as well.
"This design is actually the first of its kind in the U.S.," said James Asbury, a mechanical engineer at the Corps' Marine Design Center (MDC) who helped design the new coolers. "These coolers are used extensively throughout Europe in both river and oceangoing craft."
Inland river towboats are normally built with a type of cooler that circulates water in a closed loop from the engine to a cooler and back to the engine, he said.
Don Mayer, a mechanical engineer in the plant section, explained that the old system required pumping river water into the engineering plant where it would be used to cool the three main engines, their reduction gears and two air conditioning chillers.
"The river water wasn't too kind to the system and there was a lot of corrosion," Mayer said. "The new system changes all that."
The new system was designed by the MDC in Philadelphia, Pa., and will have box coolers on the port and starboard sides of the engineroom in what were once ballast tanks. Stability will not be affected since the tanks were normally filled with water anyway….
Schuyler Rubber Company of Woodinville, Wash., and Maritime International of Broussard, La., have announced the creation of a joint venture. The new company, called Schuyler-Maritime LLC, has constructed a manufacturing facility in Broussard to design and manufacture laminated or "cut tire" rubber fenders.
This facility is designed to service the Gulf and East Coast vessel fender markets and utilizes the in-house manufacturing capabilities of Maritime International and the designs and expertise of Schuyler Rubber….
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