Weekly News Summary For May 14-20, 2007:
Preliminary construction and site preparation have begun along Paducah’s riverfront, where Crounse Corporation will build a new 17,000-square-foot office complex. The new facility will replace Crounse’s current downtown location, from which it has operated since 1965.
The $4.5 million complex is being constructed on a nine-acre site straddling the city’s floodwall, and is across the street from the new Carson Four Rivers Performing Arts Center. The two-story structure will be faced with brick veneer and blue mirrored clear glass spandrel panels and will be enhanced by a reflecting pond along the city side of the floodwall.
Among the highlights of the ultra modern facility are a state-of-the-art conference room, balcony and walkway leading over the floodwall. Steve Little, president, said construction will utilize the “Green Building System” of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a national hallmark for environmentally friendly buildings. This will be the first “LEED”-certified building in West Kentucky, Little noted, adding, “There are only a few in the whole state.”
Eagle Marine Industries and SCF Agri/Fuels LLC have formed a partnership to develop Gateway Terminals Limited, a new intermodal ethanol terminal.
Construction of the $12.5 million project is planned to start in June in Sauget, Ill., and should be completed during the spring of 2008. The terminal has been in the development stage since October 2006.
The new terminal will have five new 98,900-barrel tanks for ethanol or other products and will be located on Eagle Marine Industries’ 165-acre multi-product terminal in Sauget, across the river from St. Louis.
The first tank, which will be dedicated to serving SCF’s needs, is scheduled to be installed in late December. The other four will come on line in one-month intervals. The tanks are being manufactured by Pasadena Tank Corporation.
The terminal will have access to the Mississippi River with a new barge dock….
The 1,200-foot-long main lock at Melvin Price Locks and Dam in Alton, Ill., will receive gate hoisting cable replacements, electronic control system replacements and miter gate repairs and replacements through July 3.
The lock chamber will be closed to navigation, but the 600-foot auxiliary lock will remain open during repairs.
A regional repair crew from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers districts in St. Louis and Rock Island will work two 12-hour shifts, seven days a week.
Andy Schimpf, project manager of the St. Louis District’s Rivers Project Office in West Alton, Mo., explained that combining three major repairs, enacting the sizable repair crew, and working double shifts are measures the Corps is taking to minimize impacts to navigation….
Engineers of Marathon Petroleum Company (Louisiana Refining Division) in Garyville, La., invited pilots’ associations, an industry safety group, and towing companies to review plans for its $3.2 billion refinery and dock expansion.
Part of that review included participation in Marathon’s innovative navigation impact study using the towboat simulator at Delgado Community College in Mandeville, La.
Marathon hired URS Corporation, the world’s largest engineering firm, to design a ship dock that extends past its Dock No. 3. A 1,000-foot causeway will extend over the levee on the east bank of the Mississippi River about Mile Marker 140, which is just below what river users call 48-Mile Point.
The causeway will extend above and beyond Dock No. 3, allowing tows to continue using it as a barge dock, while ships discharge crude oil outboard at the new Dock No. 5.
During a meeting with towing executives months ago, John Roberts, president of Mandeville, La.-based Florida Marine Transporters, suggested using the Transas-built towboat simulator at Delgado. The innovative use of the simulator was developed during follow-up meetings….
Paducah River Painting has debuted what the company hails as the inland marine industry’s first partially automated barge painting and refurbishing facility.
The firm has completed three recent expansions and improvements to the innovative barge service center, located at Tennessee River Mile 13 between Paducah and Calvert City, Ky. The unique venture has been operating in various stages for a couple of years and has already developed a list of steady customers, said Jeff James, senior vice president and chief operating officer.
James said the system is an environmentally friendly process. No blast medium or paint goes near the water, he explained during a tour of the totally enclosed blasting and painting operation. He said accurate recordkeeping and effluent recovery procedures provide a solid paper trail for customers, thus reducing their exposure to fines or repercussions for improper disposal of blasting or paint residue.
“We’ve gone the extra mile by investing heavily against possible environmental damages from this operation,” James remarked. “We don’t want to put our customers or ourselves at risk for any possible pollution risks.”
The facility was built at a former barge-painting site where effluent was not easily recovered, but that has all changed, thanks to the specially constructed enclosures and containment systems. The entire facility has been elevated above the 100-year floodplain to assure uninterrupted operation, James explained….
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