Weekly News Summary For September 29 - October 5, 2008:
The Wallace Tunnel in Mobile, Ala., is recognized as one of the worst bottlenecks on Interstate 10, with sharp bends in approaches on both sides as it dips below the Mobile River. Even with a posted speed of 45 mph., accidents are frequent. In 2006, accidents reportedly blocked the tunnel once every three days.
While the Federal Highway Administration and the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) agree the I-10 tunnel needs to be replaced with a bridge, the location of a replacement bridge is creating quite a stir.
A total of 14 proposed bridge sites were narrowed to three, all of which cross the river south of the existing tunnel. Opponents of those plans, however, insist all three locations, called Alternates A, B, and C, will adversely affect the future of the port.
A group calling itself Keep Mobile Moving, including individuals and some of the major shipyard interests, prefers to reroute I-10 truck traffic north of Mobile along the I-65/I-165 corridor and across the Mobile River on the existing Cochrane-Africatown Bridge, which is becoming known as the “northern bypass.”
Even after eliminating the southernmost Alternate C location, which almost all agree would have the greatest adverse affect on marine interests, bridge piers for Alternates A and B would be located near the new maritime museum, the cruise terminal or three shipyards, says Keep Mobile Moving….
Jay Darlington of Alter Barge Line Inc. is proud to have been part of the birth of a new market opportunity for the barge industry.
“I believe we were the first people to put wind-turbine blades on a barge,” he told The Waterways Journal.
By “we,” Darlington means Alter’s Blackhawk Fleet in Buffalo, Iowa, where Darlington works as Alter Barge Line’s terminal services representative.
It was one of Alter’s barge competitors that actually carried the first wind turbine blades, he said. No Alter barge happened to be available at the time, and other barge companies that compete with Alter for cargoes also regularly use Alter’s Blackhawk Fleet for terminal, fleeting and barge-cleaning services, so Darlington figured it was a “win-win situation for everyone.”
The wind-turbine parts market for barges came about because of a mistake. As so often happens in business, a mistake became an opportunity.
America’s midwest has been called the Saudi Arabia of wind power, and Midwestern states are making bets on wind being a key part of future energy resources, although a recent article in The Atlantic magazine pointed out some technical difficulties. Since wind generates power when and where it’s least needed, it must be stored and transmitted, creating a need for expensive transmission lines and backup power plants. Wind power costs have risen, not fallen, in the last few years….
The reality of Hurricane Ike’s devastation is still sinking in for Galveston residents, tens of thousands of whom are returning to moldy mud flats of debris with no electricity, running water, or sewer services where their houses used to be. Some families, certainly thousands, will eventually decide to relocate.
Meanwhile, continued river closures on the Missouri, Mississippi and Illinois rivers in Ike’s aftermath continued to cost shippers and barge companies in the Midwest.
CenterPoint Energy, the Houston power utility, said it had restored power to 75 percent of customers affected by Ike by September 25—1.58 million customers over 10 days, out of 2.15 million total.
Ike caused power outages for 99 percent of the customers of Entergy, which supplies power to western Louisiana and parts of eastern Texas—the largest percentage in its history, the company said on its web site. By September 25, an estimated 400,000 of its customers were still without power.
As Ike moved north, it knocked out power for an additional 140,000 customers in Arkansas. Some of the areas hit by Ike overlapped with areas still damaged from Hurricane Gustav….
Testifying before the House Committee on Homeland Security on behalf of The American Wateways Operators, Steve Golding, president of Golding Barge Lines, asked for several revisions for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program.
“We need your help to ensure that the TWIC program achieves its security goals without scaring new employees away from our industry, imposing unreasonable burdens on the folks currently working for us, and saddling American companies with expensive requirements that don’t add real security value,” Golding said in the September 17 testimony.
Specifically, Golding asked Congress to make five changes….
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) charged that storm-surge flooding in Terrebonne Parish in Louisiana during Hurricane Ike was a result of the Corps of Engineers holding up and misusing funds designated for levee repairs from a June 2006 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill.
“I was shocked to learn from local and parish officials that the $30 million in federal funding that I secured for repairs, modifications, and improvements to non-federal levees in Terrebonne Parish was spent by the Corps on a study in conjunction with one of our universities in order to build a mentoring relationship,” Vitter said.
“The Corps’ actions were highly irresponsible, and the bottom line is that this flooding should never have happened,” Vitter said
A total of $30.024 million was dedicated specifically to local work on levees outside of the federal government’s jurisdiction, Vitter said. The money was set aside because the Corps “had failed to even start advancing federal protection through the Morganza to the Gulf program, even though that vital program was first requested in 1992 and was authorized by Congress in 2000….
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