Weekly News Summary For October 22-28, 2007:
J. Russell Flowers Inc. christened the new towboat Laura Rodgers September 13 in Greenville, Miss. Built by NewSouth Marine Construction, the 3,300 hp. boat is the first line-haul vessel owned by Flowers, which has a sizable and growing fleet of marine equipment that it charters to various operators.
The Greenville-based firm is one of the largest leasers of barges in the country. J. Russell Flowers, who sold Flowers Transportation to Chromalloy America in 1981, runs the company with his son, Rusty, president, and Jill Harvey, longtime secretary/treasurer. The firm started out with deck barges, rock barges and covered hopper barges. Then it added tank barges.
Flowers is also in the process of building harbor boats, and has a second line-haul towboat under construction at NewSouth.
The Laura Rodgers is operated by Tennessee Marine LP, which uses it to push a tow of 16 rock barges from quarries near St. Louis to the Memphis plant of APAC-Tennessee Inc., an asphalt and concrete firm.
Laura Rodgers, the vessel’s namesake, is the daughter of APAC’s marine transportation manager, Mike Johnson, in whose honor the boat is named. Raised in Eudora, Ark., near Greenville, he started to work on the river 33 years ago, fresh out of high school, as a field clerk for a river construction firm.
He ended up at the company in 1998 after having worked for Davis Construction, which was bought out by Patton-Tully Transportation. APAC partnered with Patton-Tully on various jobs; Johnson stayed with APAC afterwards.
APAC, which is an acronym for Ashland Paving and Construction, is one of the country’s largest pavers of highways. Tennessee Marine was formed to operate the company’s three boats and 100-odd barges.
The Alabama Power Company plans to reduce its flows into the Alabama River by about 57 percent.
The company will cut flow releases from its original releases of 4,640 cubic feet per second to about 2,000 cfs. The cuts have been scheduled for October 8, 15, 22, 29 and November 5. A 10 percent cut was made in July.
“We’re in a record-setting drought in the southeast. It’s hit Alabama very hard,” Alabama Power Company spokesman Michael Sznajderman said.
“One of the factors that went into our decision to reduce flows was the Corps’ decision to reduce flows into our system,” Sznajderman explained.
The decision to reduce flows is based on weather, inflows, levels of lakes and the long-term weather outlook, which calls for dry weather and a dry winter.
The company is reducing flows with the intention of refilling its five storage reservoirs on the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers. Alabama’s storage reservoirs have fallen below winter pool, a level not normally seen until early December….
American Electric Power announced last week it is purchasing property adjacent to its Lakin, W.Va., river operations center to be used for expansion of that facility.
The Lakin site houses AEP’s River Operations, responsible for moving coal along the Ohio River and its tributaries for delivery to AEP power plants. Currently, about 20 people work at the Lakin office and approximately 250 river mariners are dispatched from Lakin to staff or provide mechanical support for the 14 boats operated by River Operations.
AEP, through its Appalachian Power subsidiary, is purchasing the nearly 27-acre site adjacent to its existing 10-acre site from the West Virginia Economic Development Authority for approximately $268,000. The company is working with architects to design the new facility. Construction is expected to begin and be completed in 2008.
Horizon Shipbuilding Inc., Bayou la Batre, Ala., has signed a construction contract with Florida Marine Transporters, Mandeville, La., to build up to nine state-of-the-art, 6,000 hp. towboats. The total value of the contract will be in excess of $80 million, Horizon said in an announcement.
The vessels, designed by John W. Gilbert Associates of Hingham, Mass., will push up to 12 barges carrying oil and other petroleum products on the Mississippi River System. The boats will be 140 by 42 by 11-1/2 feet, with an 8-1/2-foot draft. They will have quarters for nine crewmembers.
The towboats will be built at Horizon’s Bayou la Batre shipyard over a two- to three-year period, with delivery of the first boat expected in the first quarter of 2009. To accommodate the added work, Horizon has added to its working waterfront acreage and will create an additional 100–200 jobs, as well as additional work for a number of subcontractors used in the construction process.
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