Weekly News Summary For July 10-16, 2006:
Coast Guard Issues National AIS Proposal
The U.S. Coast Guard has available a draft programmatic environmental impact statement addressing the proposed implementation of the Nationwide Automatic Identification system (NAIS) project.
The proposed implementation of the NAIS project would involve installing receivers, transmitters, transceivers, repeaters and other equipment on towers or other structures at up to 450 sites at locations along 95,000 miles of coastline and inland waterways, as well as the use of selected remote platforms. The purpose of the proposed installations is to establish a nationwide network of receivers and transmitters to capture, display, exchange and analyze AIS-generated information. The proposal would satisfy the Coast Guard’s need to enhance homeland security while carrying out its mission to ensure marine safety and security, preserve maritime mobility, protect the marine environment, enforce U.S. laws and international treaties and perform search and rescue operations.
The technical and operational requirements for NAIS require the system to be operational in both inland navigable waters and the open ocean out to 2,000 nautical miles offshore, the Coast Guard said….
The Missouri River navigation season will be shortened by 44 days because releases from the upriver system of reservoirs have been limited to what is necessary to meet minimum navigation flow targets. The Northwestern Engineer District made the determination after the water in storage check on July 1.
Northwestern Engineer spokesman Paul Johnston said this will mark the third year of a shortened navigation season.
“In 2004, the season was shortened by 47 days, and in 2005, the season was shortened by 48 days,” he said. “The system is still dry in the central part of the basin and in Missouri. We had to release water from our Kansas reservoirs to help out in Missouri.”
The 44 days put the cutoff for support of navigation at October 8 in Sioux City, Iowa; October 10 in
Omaha, Neb.; October 12 in Nebraska City, Neb.; October 14 in Kansas City, Mo.; and October 18 at the
mouth of river.
Despite the bad news to industry, the runoff from spring rain and melting snow in the mountains have pushed the level of Garrison reservoir up 6.5 feet since mid-April, nearly four feet of that during the critical forage fish spawn and 2.5 feet in June….
CG Railway announced it will return to Mobile, Ala., after a little more than a year of operations in New Orleans. A subsidiary of International Shipholding Corporation, the company moves rail cars from Mexico to the United States on ships, in part to avoid the overland bottlenecks at the border.
Gov. Bob Riley announced that International Shipholding will move its corporate offices, including about 150 jobs, to Mobile. The Alabama State Port Authority approved a $19 million project to accommodate the CG Railway vessels.
“Mobile and the CG Railway service are the perfect fit,” said James K. Lyons, director and chief executive officer of the Alabama State Port Authority (ASPA). “The company plans to double the capacity of its ships and the port’s regional cargoes can fill that capacity. We’ve known the company and its employees for many years, and we are proud to welcome them to our port community.”
A press release from the ASPA said the new rail ferry terminal “will be the first of its kind with a twin-deck design that will have the ability to load two ship decks via four ramps to the lower deck and six ramps to the upper deck. The cut-in slip will measure about 400 feet in length and will have about 4,000 feet of rail track lain behind the ship.”
CG Railway is currently modifying its vessels The Bali Sea and The Banda Sea by installing second decks to increase ship capacity to 122 standard rail cars, up from the current capacity of 60 standard rail cars per voyage….
Continuing the practice of christening its new boats on the fly, Golding Barge Line Inc. caught up with its two newest vessels recently to properly anoint them during a brief respite from their rounds. The company held what owner Steve Golding calls “working christenings,” for the mv. Boyd Golding and the mv. John Reid Golding, both recently delivered from Quality Shipyards LLC.
Attended by family and employees, the bottle breaking for the Boyd was conducted at Quality’s yard in Houma, La., on May 31. For the John Reid, it was staged at Memphis June 11.
Previously, two other new boats, the Angie Golding and the Stephen Austin Golding, were christened in similar fashion.
The Vicksburg, Miss.-based barge line operates a fifth towboat, the chartered Lori Johnson, and has two more on order that are scheduled for delivery in mid-2007, one 2,000 hp. and one 3,000 hp.
The boats match up to a fleet of 33 tank barges with three new 30,000-barrel barges to come.
“We made the decision a few years back to go with all-new boats and barges,“ Golding commented. “The difference in technology, comfort and fuel efficiencies in today’s new boats is night and day from the equipment that was built in the ’60s and ’70s.”…
Conrad Industries announced the signing of contracts during the second quarter of 2006 for the construction of 14 vessels totaling $28.8 million and the delivery of nine vessels in recent months.
Offshore Marine Contractors has executed contracts for two 175-foot class 110- by 64.5- by nine-foot liftboats and for a 200-foot class 111- by 66.5- by 10-foot liftboat. These add to the other three 175-foot class liftboats in progress previously announced by Conrad.
Conrad has executed multiple contracts with various customers for deck barges, spud barges, unloading barges, an anchor scow and a crane barge that range in size from 120 by 30 by seven feet to 200 by 40 by seven feet….
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