Weekly News Summary For October 26-November 1, 2009:
Speakers at the Sixth Annual Waterways Symposium held in New Orleans Oct. 12-14, were mostly upbeat about the prospects for waterways transportation, particularly in states along the Gulf Coast, although there may be some delay before full-blown prosperity returns. While much of New Orleans’s rental housing stock is still blighted four years after Hurricane Katrina, speaker Merritt Lane III, president and chief executive officer of New Orleans-based Canal Barge Company and vice chairman of the Waterways Council, Inc., predicted that the growth of charter schools could make Louisiana a competitive state.
In New Orleans, “The Katrina experience has provided the Corps of Engineers countless lessons learned—many the hard way,” he said. “Nevertheless, with full funding, a clear mission, a strong sense of urgency, and a willingness to innovate and engage with stakeholders, the Corps is doing some incredible work down here.
“New Orleans is attracting talent in ways we have not seen in generations—our ‘brain drain’ has become a ‘brain gain.’ We are seeing numerous entrepreneurial companies take root in our city, adding a positive vibe to our once staid business community,” he said.
Lane cited infrastructure failures—the collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minnesota, the catastrophic failure of the Markland Lock & Dam, and the closing of The Dalles Lock & Dam—as “consequences of … the irresponsible path we’re on of under-investing in our country’s critical infrastructure.”
Gary LaGrange, president and chief executive officer of the Port of New Orleans, followed with a positive view of the port. While container traffic is off, the port’s warehouses are filled with metals, particularly non-ferrous metals. Inventories for manufacturing plants are “razor thin,” he said, and as soon as the economy begins to turn around, he expects to see a lot of barge traffic moving metals up the Mississippi River.
The Belle of Louisville severely damaged its paddlewheel when it struck a McBride Towing drydock on October 17.
According to the Coast Guard’s October 19 news release, the Belle of Louisville was upbound at 1:45 p.m. at Mile 596 on the Ohio River when it began a turn to the Kentucky side of the river for its return to downtown Louisville. During the turn, the Belle drifted and struck the drydock, throwing some passengers to the deck.
A Coast Guard Marine Vessel Investigation Team is conducting an ongoing investigation into the allision’s cause, and no final determination has been made. The wind that day was 15-20 mph, and the Belle’s chief executive officer, Linda Harris, told WAVE 3 TV in Louisville that she believed a strong wind blew the Belle against the drydock.
The allision damaged two-thirds of the oak paddlewheel’s blades, and bent the main steel arm across the 26-foot-long paddlewheel. The drydock was also damaged, and insurance adjusters have already examined both the drydock and boat. Tugboats were required to pull the Belle away from the drydock and tow it home.
Two elderly female passengers aboard the Belle fell during the allision and were later taken to a hospital with minor injuries, according to WAVE 3 TV. The Coast Guard confirmed that one person aboard the drydock also suffered minor injuries. The Belle was carrying 280 passengers at the time….
“Good things are happening in Arkansas. We’re in tough times, but we’re poising ourselves,” said Ron Coles of engineering consultants W. R. Coles & Associates, which works with ports and terminals in Arkansas and other states. Coles made his opening remarks at the annual meeting of the Arkansas Governor’s Conference on Waterborne Transportation in Little Rock.
The meeting was jointly hosted by the Arkansas Waterways Commission, the Corps of Engineers Little Rock District and the Arkansas Waterways Association October 5–7.
At the first full session on October 6, the breakfast included a special gavel to Paul Latture, a member of both organizations and executive director of the Little Rock Port Authority since 1999.
The first speaker, North Little Rock Mayor Pat Hays, spent some time talking about a controversial move he made to help promote his town’s riverfront along the Arkansas River: He had the city purchase a WWII-era submarine from Turkey to serve as a waterfront attraction. The sub had been sold by the U.S. to Turkey, but now bears again its original name, USS Razorback.
“I rode the tugboat that pulled her out of Istanbul and got off at Malta,” said Hays. Hays is known for attention-getting photo-ops; on a trip aboard a nuclear submarine, he had himself photographed inside the sub’s torpedo tubes while it was 900 feet underwater—along with Janet Huckabee, wife of then-Gov. Mike Huckabee….
On board one of the industry’s newest towboats following its christening recently, the governor of West Virginia showed he was on board with the industry as well.
American Electric Power, one of the largest electric utilities in the nation, and its subsidiary Appalachian Power Company, held the dedication September 17 on the Kanawha River at the foot of the state capitol in Charleston. The company’s new boat, built by Quality Shipyards, is named mv. Mountain State. After the ceremony, Gov. Joe Manchin piloted the boat; his wife, Gayle, served as the vessel’s sponsor.
Speaking off the cuff in the pilothouse to a crowd including Mike Morris, chairman of AEP, the second-term Democrat said he would not support the cap-and-trade legislation, known as the Waxman-Markey bill after its congressional sponsors Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.). He said although there are some good things in the bill, it doesn’t address the problem, and, “The credits for alternate energy create a cash flow that is not sustainable.”
The bill’s supporters have done a good job of “villainizing” coal, he continued, “but it’s not going away,” referring to the nation’s need for a readily available and cheap source of power. Manchin told the wheelhouse gathering he thinks the Waxman-Markey bill is bad for the country, concluding, “If the president thinks he’s had a tough time with the health-care bill, just wait until he gets the energy bill.”
Not that his audience needed reminding, but West Virginia is coal country, said Mark Knoy, president of AEP River Operations, which operates the mv. Mountain State. He spoke at a luncheon at the Governor’s Mansion and again at the christening, saying that of the 119 million tons of commodities that moved by water through West Virginia in 2004, coal comprised almost 75 percent, valued at $12.1 billion….
Pilot chatter between towboats on bridge-to-bridge VHF channel 13 was celebrating the nighttime openings of the new Golden Meadow Lock on Bayou Lafourche last week as it allowed them to move their inland tows between the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) and Port Fourchon, home port of as many as 85 percent of supply boats working the deep water petroleum rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.
“The South Lafourche Levee District signed a letter of ‘substantial completion’ with contractors on October 7, 2009, for the second southern gate” said Windell Curole, the executive director of the South Lafourche Levee District (SLLD).
Working in tandem with the existing gate, the addition of a second flood gate creates a lock, allowing tows to enter Bayou Lafourche from the south during the recent high tides.
Southern winds, a product of this year’s El Niño conditions, created exceptionally high tides for the last two months, causing SLLD officials to close the flood gate at Golden Meadow much of the time. That gate protects lower Lafourche parish from water pushed inland by winds from the Gulf. To the north, a flood gate at Larose, La., prevents flooding from the GIWW. While there were levee failures in New Orleans to the east during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and more massive flooding to the west 19 days later during Hurricane Rita, the SLLD levees have never failed, he pointed out.
During Hurricane Gustav, which registered a direct hit on Port Fourchon in 2008, Curole drove to the Golden Meadow from his “safe house,” the local hospital, and saw waves slapping against the flood gates, but still holding as the wind-blown spray stung his face….
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