Weekly News Summary For September 11-17, 2006:
Corps And TVA Officials Host Meeting For Lock 52 Closure
More than 50 marine industry, Corps of Engineers and TVA officials gathered at Paducah, Ky., September 7 for an informational meeting regarding the upcoming closure of the main lock chamber at Lock and Dam 52. The meeting was conducted at the Maiden Alley Cinema, adjacent to the River Heritage Museum, which hosted the informational session.
Still reeling from the effects of the scheduled closure of the smaller auxiliary chamber that has been in effect since August 8, industry officials were extremely concerned about the anticipated backlog of traffic, which is expected to be larger than the current situation. There has been a waiting list of more than 50 tows.
Rick Lewis from the operations division of the Louisville Engineer District reported that the scheduled closure has been delayed approximately five days from the previously announced September 19 date because of some delays during the repair of the smaller, 600-foot lock chamber. He said repairs are “progressing well” in spite of the fact that it has been 22 years since any major repairs had been done to the outmoded facility.
The small chamber has been completely closed since repairs began, but the 1,200-foot chamber will be closed for shorter periods of time. The main chamber work will involve repairs to the cells that comprise the lock walls, whereas the small chamber required complete dewatering for gate and sill repairs. Industry officials expressed concern that traffic will be backed up worse than it has been for the small lock closure because most tows will be required to double-lock through the smaller 600-foot chamber.
Corps officials said there are plans to “throw the dam” as often as possible to “flush out” accumulated traffic, but they admitted that anticipated river flows and precipitation are not favorable for quick wicket-lowering maneuvers. Debbie Lee, from the Corps’ Water Management office of the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division in Cincinnati, said there must be very careful coordination of water releases from Barkley and Kentucky locks as well as from the lower Ohio River pools from Cannelton through Smithland Locks and Dam….
After a challenging year, the Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association (GICA) re-united with New Orleans at its 101st annual convention, held at the Wyndham New Orleans at Canal Place.
The meeting was preceded by a golf tournament organized by Tommy Echols, Echo Marine, and Larry Barbish, Canal Barge Company, at the Timberlane Country Club. Winners of the outing were Michael Golemi, Liskow & Lewis, Robert Loeb, Port of Victoria, Lee Jackson, Valero, and Larry Lang, United States Corps of Engineers.
Following the event, GICA hosted a reception and awards dinner where Raymond Butler, executive director, announced the recipients of this year’s awards. The Dale Miller award, which recognizes acts of heroism, went to the Port of New Orleans Harbor Police. The harbor police deployed two boats following Hurricane Katrina and rescued hundreds of people while many of their own homes were damaged or destroyed….
President George W. Bush last week nominated Mary Peters, former head of the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), to be the next U.S. secretary of transportation.
Peters is currently senior vice president at the engineering firm HDR Inc. Since 2006, she has also been co-vice chairman of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission.
Peters was federal highway administrator from 2001 to 2005, during which time she led the FHA’s efforts to complete a multi-year authorization of surface transportation programs.
Before joining the Bush administration in 2001, she was director of the Arizona Department of Transportation. She joined the state agency in 1985 and worked her way up through the ranks, ultimately being appointed director in 1998….
Paducah, Ky.—“I had no idea the Ohio River was such a ‘working’ river before I got into this trip.” This is but one of many surprises and observations noted by Carolyn Lambert during her two-night stopover here on the downbound portion of her two-month river odyssey. She is creating an audio CD that she hopes to have aired on National Public Radio.
The 33-year-old adventurer came upon the idea of doing an audio documentary about the Ohio River while attending graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Being a New Hampshire native, she was surprised to see pleasure boaters sharing the Pittsburgh-area rivers with heavy concentrations of commercial traffic along industry-lined river banks.
“I was interested in how people were negotiating this space,” which she immediately recognized as “an area of potential conflict.”
Her project has been motivated by a desire to understand the range of uses of the Ohio River from industrial to recreational and to transform what she describes as ambivalence about water quality into advocacy.
“I believe that this can be achieved by creating an opportunity for a personal encounter with the river and for citizens to share this experience with their neighbors,” she states in her Web page describing the project. The address is www.ohioriverlifeboatproject.org….
As the last of the piping plover and least tern chicks along the Missouri River below Garrison Dam mature enough to fly, releases are being increased to better balance the impacts of the drought among the three largest main stem reservoirs.
“We intend to increase releases at Garrison from the current 21,000 cubic feet per second (cfs.) to 24,000 cfs. once the last of the tern and plover chicks are ready to fly,” said Larry Cieslik, chief of the water management office in the Northwestern Engineer District. “These higher releases to benefit Oahe reservoir will be held only until mid-September, when they will be cut to about 15,000 cfs. The summer’s higher releases are normally held until then for irrigators below the dam.”
“The additional water from Garrison will slow the decline of Oahe until its releases can be reduced after Labor Day when the annual drawdown of Fort Randall reservoir begins. The higher releases over the three-week period will add about 0.6 of a foot to Oahe and drop Garrison the same amount….
Cargo tonnage levels during the first five months of 2006 are up more than 4 percent compared to the same period’s average over the last four years.
The port achieved the milestone, despite losing nearly 25 percent of its facilities located along the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal and the Mississippi River - Gulf Outlet, which received serious flood and wind damage. The other 75 percent of the port’s facilities on the Mississippi River did not flood and received only wind damage to transit sheds and warehouses.
Steel and other break-bulk cargoes, such as natural rubber, forestry products and general commodities surged to help the port recover and rebound well ahead of its own aggressive schedule.
“These figures are great news for the entire port community, the New Orleans region, the state of Louisiana and the nation,” said Gary LaGrange, president and chief executive officer of the Port of New Orleans. “Our staff, stevedores, longshoremen and customers are doing a yeoman’s job of making sure the port of New Orleans meets the transportation needs of the American people.”…
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