Weekly News Summary For April 17-23, 2006:
Coast Guard To Centralize License Processing
The reorganization of the Coast Guard Regional Exam Centers’ processing of mariner’s credentials will modernize the process to ensure improved service.
Angela McArdle, spokeswoman for the Coast Guard, said the transition to a centralizing reviewing and processing site of mariner’s credentials in Martinsburg, W. Va., will improve the security, consistency and service to mariners and country.
The temporary headquarters in Martinsburg will be used until a permanent home is found in Martinsburg in 2007. McArdle said she expects the headquarters to be fully operational in 2008.
The regional exam centers (RECs) located through the U.S. will remain the same with the exception of staff restructuring.
“At your local REC, you still will have the front desk,” she said. “You still will have the face-to-face operations needed for testing, fingerprinting and interviews. That will be unchanged. All the processing and review will occur in Martinsburg. That will bring the consistency across the country because specially trained individuals will be looking over the applications for everyone.”
The Coast Guard is aiming to have all 17 RECs transitioned by late 2008. McArdle said she was not aware of a timeline of which RECs will be transitioned. An original list was altered to allow for New Orleans to be transitioned first due to damage from Hurricane Katrina….
19-21 in New Orleans will cover a host of pressing issues, but George Andres, IRPT president and general manager at Kaskaskia Regional Port District, Ill., said the location of the conference is something to be highlighted.
“The reason we are holding the meeting in New Orleans is to show support to the port and the recovery efforts of the entire Gulf Coast region,” he said. “ We plan on taking a tour of the New Orleans area and the port to see the devastation and reconstruction, and New Orleans mayor (C.) Ray Nagin will be at the conference to speak.”
Included in the conference’s agenda is a Washington update. Worth Hager president of the National Waterways Conference, will brief those in attendance about ongoing operations and maintenance funding and the Water Resources Development Act.
Andres said the changing dynamics of the transportation industry is also an important topic. He said the heavy import and freight demand is putting a greater toll on railroads, which are already at near gridlock. With the combination of fuel costs and demands for truck drivers and available equipment, Andres said the transportation industry is at a pivotal point….
The new Harvey Canal floodgates should be operational by the height of this year’s hurricane season, the Corps of Engineers’ project manager, Jackie Purrington, told The Waterways Journal.
After receiving emergency supplemental funding from Congress, the entire Harvey Canal flood protection project on the Westbank in New Orleans is being fast-tracked by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Purrington said.
The Harvey Canal floodgates portion of the project was already funded and about 40 percent complete when Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005. In addition to the floodgates, the project includes 66 miles of levees and was originally scheduled for a 2018 completion date.
Finish date has been moved up to September 2007, with the $200 million Congress appropriated in the third emergency supplemental funding bill to complete critical projects, Purrington said.
The gates are being built at the fabrication yard of prime contractor Boh Bros. Construction on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. They are now being painted and will be moved by barge to the site once it is ready. Purrington said the gates should be operational sometime in August.
The width of the Harvey Canal channel will be about 100 feet at the gates, once they are completed. Locks connecting the Harvey Canal to the Mississippi River, about a mile away, have a 75-foot horizontal clearance….
Coast Guard Capt. Frank Paskewich was selected 2005 Maritime Person of the Year by the Greater New Orleans Barge Fleeting Association (GNOBFA).
As the first commanding officer of newly commissioned Sector New Orleans and Captain of the Port (COTP) of New Orleans, Capt. Paskewich directed the Coast Guard’s heroic rescue efforts during Hurricane Katrina. He assumed command 11 days before the storm roared ashore.
In all, a staggering 33,000 people were rescued by Coast Guard-directed efforts.
Ever humble, Capt. Paskewich is quick to deflect praise directed at him, choosing instead to say the many active, reserve and auxiliary Coast Guard personnel who are on the front line deserve the credit for their actions during the flooding of New Orleans following levee failures….
A state district judge in Louisiana ruled that the Associated Branch Pilots (Bar Pilots) can board and disembark from ships off their new base station in Venice, La., at Mile 12 AHP (Above Head of Passes), and lifted a temporary restraining order.
Judge William Roe of the 25th (La.) Judicial District Court found no significant safety concern if the ships slow down around Mile Marker 12 for the Bar Pilots’ launch to come alongside. In securing the restraining order, Crescent River Pilots had alleged the maneuver posed safety problems.
At issue was where the Bar Pilots, who guide deep-draft vessels from the sea buoy through Southwest Pass and into the Mississippi River, can board and disembark from the ships.
Since 1908, the Bar Pilots and Crescent Pilots, who take the ships to New Orleans at Mile Marker 104.7, conducted their pilot exchanges off Pilottown at Mile Marker 2 AHP.
But Hurricane Katrina severely damaged the dormitory and support facilities at Pilottown. The Crescent Pilots have almost completed repairs of three of their six buildings at Pilottown at a cost of $1 million.
The Bar Pilots determined their facility was damaged beyond repair and bought land in Venice, La., 10 miles upriver….
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