Weekly News Summary For March 22–28, 2010:
The nation’s barge and towing industry learned a few weeks ago that it’s getting a lot of support from a source that at one time might have been considered unlikely: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Speaking at the National Waterways Conference’s 2010 Legislative Summit, Murphie Barrett, manager of the Chamber’s two-year-old Let’s Rebuild America initiative, told attendees of the Chamber’s intense interest in advocating for the need to maintain, modernize and expand the country’s transportation, energy, broadband and water systems.
Barrett said the Chamber is educating the public about the importance of infrastructure investment but indicated that the job isn’t easy. A legislative agenda crowded with such issues as health care, deficit and debt reduction, combined with an election year, Barrett said, makes it hard to move any component of the infrastructure agenda forward.
“Transportation has to fit in the bigger policy picture,” she added.
The message that needs to be made clear to elected officials on Capitol Hill, she said, is that transportation “supports the U.S. economy and provides direct and indirect jobs.”…
Mississippi River stakeholders need to engage in the latest study of the Missouri River, or risk facing serious consequences, a leading Missouri River navigation proponent said during the Inland Waterways Conference at St. Louis.
“The Missouri River is extremely important to the Mississippi River, and certainly to the entire inland waterways system,” said Randy Asbury, executive director of the Coalition to Protect the Missouri River.
The study in question is the Missouri River Authorized Purposes Study (MRAPS), which was authorized through the 2009 omnibus budget resolution by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.). The $25 million study is ostensibly designed to take a look at the authorized uses of the river to see if priorities need to be rearranged. Asbury said the real reason for the study is clear.
“The motivation here is to eliminate navigation on the Missouri river,” he said.
And while navigation has all but been eliminated on the Missouri for the last few years—in part due to changes in the recent Master Manual revision—the real impacts would be felt if Missouri River flows were reduced to the Mississippi River, Asbury said.…
Mid America Shipyards LLC, a new shipyard at Ft. Smith, Ark., recently delivered its first vessel, a truckable towboat named Mary Ann.
The shipyard, which opened its doors December 2009, built the workboat for Lake & Rivers Contracting Inc., which is a marine and heavy construction firm located in Lemont, Ill.
The boat measures 25.5 by 14 feet with a draft of 3.3 feet. It has twin John Deere 6081 AFM diesels that deliver 660 hp. to 34- by 34-inch propellers on three-inch shafts. It weighs 44,500 pounds.
The shipyard is run by longtime boat builder Michael Dismer, who began his career with his father in Morgan City, La. doing subcontract work for surrounding shipyards. The firm, Maritime Systems Design, sent teams of welders, carpenters, electricians and pipe fitters to help build vessels.
The company moved from Morgan City to Springfield, Mo., where it evolved into On Site Marine Construction Inc. and built the showboat Branson Belle, while continuing to build smaller vessels on location around the country.…
The Coast Guard closed a four-mile portion of the Ohio River for two days after a motor vessel sank March 14 near Mile 480.6.
The Coast Guard received a report at about 4:30 a.m. from the mv. Claude R that the mv. Ceredo had sunk on the left bank of the river, with three people in the water. Two crewmen, Mike Lemker, 48, of Fort Mitchell, Ky., and Steve McKinley Jr., 43, of Ludlow, Ky., swam to safety in Boone County. But the third—later identified at Christopher McAllister, 37, of Vevay, Ind.—remained missing.
Because of initial uncertainty about exactly where the boat had sunk in the high, fast-flowing water, the Coast Guard on March 15 closed the river between Miles 482 and 478. After Boone County (Ky.) Water Rescue officials located the vessel more precisely through sonar images, according to a Cincinnati TV station, the Coast Guard reopened the Ohio River at 2 p.m. March 16.
McKinley’s sister, Tammie McAllister, who is married to the missing crewmen, told Cincinnati.com that her brother had told her the boat was traveling about four knots in swollen current when it began taking on water. The crew sheltered in the engineroom, but bailed out when water began entering. McAllister went back into the boat when Lemker’s life jacket got snarled, and wasn’t seen again.…
The March 16 meeting of the Paducah Propeller Club filled the meeting venue to capacity, thanks to the anticipation of remarks from keynote speaker, Brig. Gen. John Peabody, commander of the Great Lakes and Ohio River Engineer Division. He was introduced to the audience by Robert Stone, manager of the IMI South Delta Division of Irving Materials, host for the meeting.
Peabody’s Propeller Club visit concluded a whirlwind day that began with another visit (his sixth in 18 months) to the Wolf Creek Dam stabilization project near the headwaters of the Cumberland River, and included a visit to the Kentucky Lock expansion project and a quick stint in the new pilothouse simulator at Paducah’s Seamen’s Church Institute.
“I was powerfully impressed by the sense of service and dedication by the staff of the Seamen’s Church and the good that they do for our country through their ministering to our seamen, including our brown-water personnel being served by your Seamen’s Church Institute here in Paducah,” he said.
Peabody assumed command of the Great lakes and Ohio River Division in 2008 and directs the entire Corps’ water resources development in the division, which encompasses more than 335,000 square miles covering all or parts of 17 states. He oversees navigation and flood control projects in seven districts; Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Huntington, Louisville, Nashville and Pittsburgh. In addition to being responsible for waterway projects and programs, he also carries out the division’s military construction program for the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan.…
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