Weekly News Summary For April 28-May 4, 2008:
Marine traffic continues to move smoothly under the direction of industry-supplied volunteers who are manning 12-hour watches at the temporary Vessel Traffic Coordination Center (VTCC) in Baton Rouge.
The VTCC is required under the high water action plan, a working agreement between industry and the Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit (MSU) Baton Rouge that keeps marine traffic moving smoothly despite the highest water in 15 years on the Mississippi River. Watchstanders monitor VHF Channels 67 and 12 with the call sign “Baton Rouge Traffic.”
The VTCC opened March 31, when water reached 35 feet at the Baton Rouge gauge. It is expected to remain open through May, or until water levels drop below 35 feet.
Two safety zones are controlled by the VTCC. One zone runs from Mile 225 to Mile 229, in the vicinity of the Port Allen Lock. Another runs from Mile 232 to Mile 237, including Wilkerson Point above the Upper Baton Rouge Bridge at U.S. Hwy. 190.
The traffic coordination center is located on a mostly unused Kirby quarters barge. While the Coast Guard has oversight personnel on duty, it is mostly port captains and boat operators who stand the watches for industry….
The Bush administration has submitted proposed legislation that would resurrect a lockage fee on barges that ply the inland and intracoastal waterways and phase out the 20 cents a gallon tax on diesel fuel that the barge and towing industry is currently paying.
The fee, spelled out in proposed legislation submitted by the administration April 4 but made public only a week ago, calls for fees of $50 per barge at locks 600 feet or longer and $30 per barge at locks less than 600 feet, beginning October 1.
From October 1, 2009, through 2012, the fees would increase $10 per year at large locks and $6 per year at small locks, reaching $80 per barge and $48 per barge, respectively, through FY 2012.
Effective October 1, 2013, the fee schedule would begin automatic annual increases or decreases of $10 per barge (large locks) or $6 per barge (small locks), depending on the balance remaining in the Inland Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF) at the end of the year. If the prior year’s balance in the Trust Fund is below $25 million (or less than $50 million and has declined from the level of the balance one year earlier), per-barge fees will be increased $10 or $6, depending on the lock size, for the following year. If the prior year’s balance in the Trust Fund is over $75 million and had increased from a year earlier, per-barge fees will be decreased $10 or $6 for the following year.
The phase-out of the diesel fuel tax would begin October 1, when the levy would drop from 20 cents per gallon to 10 cents. The tax would drop to five cents per gallon October 1, 2009, and disappear completely after September 30, 2010….
Kirby Corporation last week reported record net earnings of $36.6 million for the first quarter of 2008. That figure compares with the $24.4 million reported for the first quarter of 2007.
“Our financial results produced the 17th consecutive quarter in which our earnings exceeded the same quarter of the previous year,” said Joe Pyne, Kirby president and chief executive officer, said in the April 23 announcement. “The marine transportation fundamentals remain favorable. We operated additional boats during the quarter and operated more equipment on time charters, which are insulated from revenue fluctuations caused by weather and navigational delays and temporary market declines.
“Our diesel engine services segment continued to experience strong demand in our medium-speed markets, while our highspeed Gulf Coast market was, as expected, slower due to seasonal softness in the oil service market.”…
When Magnolia Marine Transport Company takes delivery of a new towboat, the company doesn’t christen it in the traditional manner. Absent is the ribbon-wrapped bottle of champagne, the uttered words “I christen this vessel, the mv. So and So,” and the usual soaking that follows.
The river transportation arm of Ergon Inc., Magnolia Marine has developed its own unique ceremony during which a pastor blesses a container full of engine oil that the chief engineer then pours into the main engines.
Such was the case April 10 when Magnolia Marine put into service the mv. Mari Lampton from its dock in Vicksburg, Miss. The new boat is the 19th vessel in the company’s fleet and the third recently from Nichols Boat Company in Greenville, Miss. Nichols delivered the Mr. Lampton to Magnolia Marine in 2006 and the Katherine Berry last April.
The Mari Lampton is identical to the Katherine Berry, with the exception of some minor changes. The new vessel measures 110 by 32 by 10 feet, with a working draft of 8-1/2 feet, and a vertical clearance of 45 feet….
Recent rains and high water have not delayed the expected opening of Louisville’s McAlpine Lock and Dam in March 2009.
“The lock structure itself is done,” explains Army Corps of Engineers project manager George Flickner. “What we’re working on now are the concrete approach walls on either side. The rains did delay some of that work slightly,” but the overall timeline remains the same. “We were lucky we were in a spot where weather didn’t impact us a great deal.”
Flickner estimates the project team now numbers between 25 and 35 members, not including office workers, compared to about 360 during the most intensive building phase.
Flickner said his team expects to conduct “prove-outs” of the lock and dam structure during June and July 2008. A prove-out is a traffic simulation in which a towboat and barges will be run through the lock to test its mechanism.
The McAlpine Lock and Dam complex is located in downtown Louisville, with the dam at Mile 604.4 of the Ohio River, and the locks in the Louisville and Portland Canal on the Kentucky side. The new lock replaces a smaller (110- by 600-foot), aging lock. An earlier 56- by 360-foot lock chamber remains inactive. At 110 by 1200 feet, the new lock joins an existing lock of the same dimensions that was completed in 1961….
Excell Marine Corporation, Cincinnati, Ohio, has purchased the 2,400 hp. Grace from Magnolia Marine Transport, Jackson, Miss., and has placed it in service along the Upper Mississippi tributaries. Capt. Charlie Ritchie, vessel operations manager, said his company took possession of the boat April 9 and it departed Greenville the next day as the Capt. Wes Gossett.
He said the vessel was renamed in honor of a veteran captain who has worked for 30 years in the McGinnis fleet operations at South Point, Ohio. Magnolia Marine had operated the twin-screw boat as the Katherine Berry from 2003 until 2006, prior to the arrival of a new 3,000 hp. boat from Nichols Boat Company in Greenville in 2007. Magnolia Marine Transport acquired the boat in 1991.
The 104- by 30-foot, elevating-pilothouse vessel began its career with a pair of 900 hp. EMD diesels as the original Caroline for Canal Barge Company in 1955. According to the Inland River Record, the hull was built by Nashville Bridge Company, with additional completion done by Alabama Drydock & Shipbuilding Company in Mobile, Ala. It was repowered in 1992 with a pair of GM 567C diesels totaling 2,400 hp.
Capt. Ritchie said the Gossett has been assigned to work along the Missouri River on a contract for LaFarge NA, moving cement between the Kansas City area and St. Louis. Ritchie said when the Gossett arrived at Cairo, Ill., on the delivery trip, it picked up the 1,200 hp. Jim Lancaster, which was taken to LaFarge’s Sugar Creek facility at Missouri River Mile 355. The Gossett and Lancaster arrived at the mouth of the Missouri River April 17, he said….
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