Weekly News Summary For April 6-12, 2009:
Four unlighted buoys will be put in place on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) by April 10 to mark the 150-foot wide navigation span that tows will be using during the next 12 months of construction of the Lake Borgne Floodgate surge barrier in Eastern New Orleans. Mariners are asked to report any contacts with the buoys.
“The purpose is for the industry to identify issues we may face during the later stages of construction and once the floodgate is completed,” wrote Raymond Butler, executive director of the Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association (GICA), and one of the lead advocates for industry on the project.
“Once the buoys are placed, all tows need to visualize them as if the structure were in place,” Butler said. “Let’s treat them as if they were marking the only route through the area. As construction activity ramps up, we will lose any ability to deviate to the south of the buoys anyway. We will be collecting AIS tracklines to assist us in evaluating vessel transits during this time.”
Butler said he could not stress how important it will be to notify the Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) via land line at 504, 589-2780, or GICA via email at info@gicaonline.com of any contact with these buoys. If a buoy is taken out, please let VTS or GICA know, he added.
“There will be no fines, costs, or administrative action taken whatsoever,” if a buoy is hit or taken out, he stressed. “We will want to know the tide, wind, time, date, tow configuration, horsepower, direction of travel and anything else you can think of that might help us assess mitigating measures. If you see another vessel contact these buoys without reporting to VTS, someone needs to know.”…
Residents of Mobile, Ala. have been eagerly looking forward to the opening of the massive, $4.65 billion ThyssenKrupp steel plant that’s been under construction since 2007.
But ThyssenKrupp officials announced on March 23 that it would delay completing part of a river terminal that will unload scrap from barges for stainless steel production. The terminal on the Tombigbee River will have berths for five barges. Pilings for all five have already been driven.
The Mobile plant has two components, a carbon steel unit and a smaller stainless steel unit. Its construction was originally scheduled to be completed in 2010, part of a shift that had a leaner, more efficient steel industry investing in the southern U.S., in part because of its waterways infrastructure.
But in the brutal environment of the economic slowdown, which has hammered demand for stainless steel, the German steel giant is looking for ways to cut costs.
The company had already announced in January the delay of the start of stainless steel production that the barge terminal was to serve, from mid-2010 to 2011. No changes have yet been announced for the carbon steel portion of the project, which has already spent or committed $2.5 billion of its total $3.2 billion construction budget, according to the Alabama Press-Register. It employs more than 200 people now. When complete, it will employ about 2,700 people at high wages….
Conrad Industries Inc., Morgan City, La., reported net income of $23 million in 2008, up from $19.2 million in 2007, the company announced last week. On a per-diluted share, the earnings were $3.29 in 2008, and $2.63 in 2007.
For the fourth quarter, Conrad reported net income of $7.1 million, or $1.09 per diluted share, compared with $6.3 million and 86 cents per diluted share, respectively, for the fourth quarter a year ago.
The company’s backlog at the end of 2008 was $71.8 million; 61.3 percent of the backlog was from commercial contracts and 38.7 was from government contracts. At the end of 2007, the backlog was $80.9 million, 55.3 percent commercial, 40.6 percent government and 4.1 percent energy.
The backlog at the end of 2008 includes two contracts totaling $15.5 million for the construction of Z-drive harbor tugs. However, during the first quarter of 2009, the contracts were terminated by agreement between Conrad and the customer….
“The general public has no idea of the magnitude of the importance of the Olmsted Lock and Dam project,” said Eugene A. Dowell, operations manager for the Locks and Dams Project Office of the Louisville Engineer District, during his remarks at the March 25 luncheon meeting of the Waterways Industries of Paducah.
Also among those in the audience were field representatives from the offices of Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning and Rep. Ed Whitfield (all R-Ky.)
Dowell made his remarks following a DVD presentation recapping the design and construction phases of the project as well as the need for it. “That last section (of the DVD presentation) talks about ‘proper funding’” he said, referring to the recap on the construction phase. “That’s been the key all along. This thing has to be done in the correct sequence,” he said, explaining how funding delays are holding up placement of important structures necessary for the construction of the weir and tainter gate sections of the dam.
Retired industry executive and behind-the-scenes political advisor Ken Wheeler challenged the Corps to do a better job of communicating the need for increased funding for inland waterway projects, including Olmsted Lock and Dam and the Kentucky Lock and Dam expansion projects, which have been approved but not adequately funded….
After years of refurbishing older boats for its fleet, Gnots Marine owner Dan Wise teamed up with Welton Theriot, and the firm has begun building its own boats for its fleeting business. Gnots Marine’s dispatch office and shipyard is situated in St. Rose, La., on the Mississippi River, just downriver from the Bunge grain elevator.
The name Gnots is an acronym for Greater New Orleans Transportation Service. Already constructed is the Wise One, the company’s eighth boat. Coon Wise, boat number nine, is well underway and is named after Wise’s deceased son, who was known by friends as “Coon.”
The Wise One, with 2,000 hp., missed its christening while taking a load of grain to Bunge’s facility in Jonesville on the Ouachita River in Louisiana.
It took almost 15 months to get permits to use the batture space on the river side of the levee at Mile 120 to build three boat ways in a row, Wise said.
Theriot is designing the boats with a much heavier than normal hull, using 3/4-inch-thick steel for much of the hull bottom while sidewalls and the main deck are 3/8-inch thick. Push knees are built of one-inch-thick steel. Corner knuckles are three-foot radius and built with one-inch steel, as is the head log….
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