Weekly news summary for November 13-19, 2006:
Breakbulk Conference Reveals Cargo Opportunities In Future Energy
New Orleans, La.—With its biggest backlog of business in the company’s history, Jim A. Scotti, vice president and chief procurement officer of Fluor Corporation, used his keynote address at the 2006 Breakbulk Conference to warn of a possible shortage of ships in the near future to handle general and heavy-lift cargo.
Fluor Corporation has moved procurement of heavy equipment and construction materials earlier in its construction cycle to eliminate delays due to availability and transportation, he said.
One of the top three design-build engineering firms worldwide, the company’s backlog is just an indication of the booming international construction market, and delays are looming in the future, due to unavailability of ships to handle breakbulk cargo, Scotti said.
More remote projects that are logistically challenging are being proposed as developing countries enter the international markets, he said. China and India head the list.
It is such a supplier’s market, Scotti said, that companies are refusing to bid on some jobs that appear too complex, due to materials costs.
But the upside is, “this is one of the best capital markets in the last 25 years,” he said.
Gary LaGrange, president and chief executive officer of the Port of New Orleans, served as host for the conference, entitled “Breakbulk 2006: The Challenges Ahead.” An overflow crowd attended the event at the Marriott Hotel in New Orleans….
The Columbiana County Port Authority recently signed an agreement with Ohio River Clean Fuels to build a $4 billion fuel manufacturing facility near Wellsville, Ohio.
Using existing technology, the facility would create diesel or aviation fuel from coal. The product would help reduce the country’s dependence on oil from the Middle East, said Tracy Drake, chief executive officer for the port authority.
“If 12 of these facilities were built, it would meet the aviation fuel needs of our military,” Drake said. “There are about 0.7 trillion barrels of oil in the Middle East, but there are about 1.9 trillion barrels of oil available in coal and shale in the United States by using this technology.”
Baard Energy of Vancouver, Wash., created Ohio River Clean Fuels for the project.
Drake said the company will apply for construction and operating permits throughout 2007. Construction could start as early as 2008 with a projected completion date in 2011.
In addition to creating 200 to 300 high-paying, permanent jobs at the factory, Drake said the project could create 1,000 new mining jobs and 1,000 other related jobs….
Mariners heading north on the Upper Mississippi should dress warmer because “Dam Girl” isn’t there anymore.
Judy Kiges, affectionately known as “Dam Girl” at Lock and Dam 3 on Mile 797 near Red Wing, Minn., worked as a lock operator in the St. Paul Engineer District for 28 years until being forced to quit recently by a pair of bad knees.
“She collected coats, sweaters, hats and gloves year-round,” said George Mead, head operator at Lock and Dam 3. “She kept a box-full of clothes in her trunk. We’d get deckhands up from the south, and they wouldn’t have coats. She’d see them out shivering on deck and throw them a coat.”
Kiges said, “A lot of times, they didn’t know they’d be coming so far north.”
Kiges said she would bug her friends year-round to give her extra clothes, books or food.
“When the boats started cutting back, some of the oil tows and barges didn’t have cooks, especially the smaller boats,” she said. “So I always made banana bread. It was cheap, easy and it’s nice to have something homemade.”…
John Guider faced treacherous currents, huge ocean vessels, five- to six-foot waves, ill-tempered snakes, a bear and exhaustion on an odyssey to navigate the length of the Mississippi River. As a photographer, one goal on his 2,800-mile journey was to document the river and people he met along the way.
In early August 2003, Guider walked out his back door, placed his 16-foot red canoe and pushed off into Spencer Creek, which adjoins his Williamson County, Tenn. farmhouse property. The first leg of his trip took him 1,200 miles to the Gulf of Mexico.
As a photographer, Guider wanted to capture landscapes, the rivers and the people who live and work along them.
“It was truly a romantic notion,” Guider said. “Even from the get-go, it was more difficult than I thought. That first mile in the creek, trees had fallen across the creek bed, and I had to cut them to get through. I was worn out.”
The first trip took him from Franklin, Tenn., to New Orleans. He followed Spencer Creek to the Harpeth River, north on the Cumberland River. From there, he crossed Lake Barkley to the Tennessee River downstream to the Ohio. Finally, he traveled the Mississippi from Cairo, Ill., to New Orleans….
When an Army colonel in Iraq contacted the Rock Island Engineer District, it sent the district’s web site master into action.
“He said, ‘The River Cam is down,’” said Damon Barati, webmaster for Rock Island Engineer’s Navigation Information Connection (NIC) site. “He said, ‘Today, the Celebration Belle is taking our families on a cruise, and we’re trying to see our families.’ ”
The site updates photos every 60 seconds of the upstream and downstream side of the Upper Mississippi at the Rock Island Locks and Dam. The Army unit stationed in Iraq logged onto the site to catch a glimpse of their families on the riverboat, but the web site’s server was rebooting. After Barati got the camera link operating, the colonel called back with a less technical problem.
“He said, ‘They’re on the wrong side of the boat,’ ” Barati recalled. He had the Rock Island District’s lockmaster contact the Celebration Belle, whose captain directed his passengers to the camera side.
Of course, the web site - www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/NIC2/default.cfm – has many more practical uses. For instance, the site’s OMNI Reports include real-time data on lock conditions, vessel locations, tow performance and other information….
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