Weekly News Summary for November 20-26, 2006:
Ingram To Help Design Sea Point Container Terminal
Ingram Barge Company officials signed an “Indication of Interest” with Sea Point, which could lead to Ingram Barge becoming the exclusive barge operators for the proposed container dock at Mile 12 AHP (Above Head of Passes) on the Mississippi River near Venice, La.
Dan Mecklenborg, senior vice president at Ingram Barge, said Ingram Barge plans to assist Sea Point in the design of the dock for the barges and container ships. Barges would be moored on the opposite side of the dock from the ships and containers would move directly from the ships to barges.
Initially the plan is to barge the containers up the Mississippi River to the six Class 1 railheads at the Port of New Orleans, but Mecklenborg said there are also long-range hopes to move barges to fleeting areas upriver toward Baton Rouge, railheads in Memphis and beyond.
W.J. “Jim” Amoss Jr., president and chief executive officer of Sea Point, said that none of the five shipping carriers that have signed letters of intent with Sea Point currently call on Gulf Coast ports, so it will all be new business for the Mississippi River and Port of New Orleans….
The Illinois River Carriers Association received updates on the fish barrier near Romeoville, Ill., and the hazardous Elgin, Joliet and Eastern (EJ&E) Railroad Bridge, during the group’s November 14 meeting.
Some IRCA members expressed concern about sparking from the electric fish barrier in the Illinois River. The barrier uses an electric current to keep exotic species such as the Asian carp from spreading into Lake Michigan.
“When it’s turned on, they know there’s current bleeding down to the Midwest Generation fleet,” said Chief Petty Officer Dave Gonyea, command chief for the Coast Guard’s Chicago Sector. “If a barge lands on their fleet, for some reason there’s potential for sparking if barrier 2A is on.”
Safety precautions include having everyone on an open deck in the area wear a life vest. Gonyea said the Coast Guard’s emergency action plan is in its final stages for alerting vessels and companies if barrier 1 fails….
Improvements are swirling around the Regional Barge Dock at Mile 326 on the Upper Mississippi at Quincy, Ill. The city of Quincy has improved the dock, is working on upgrading transportation and has applied for hydropower permits.
The city, which operates the dock, recently added a 5,600-square-foot concrete pad for $50,000, bringing it into compliance with environmental regulations for loading and unloading fertilizer.
“We were making business retention calls last year, and people mentioned there would be a greater need for services,” said Jim Mentesti, president of the Great River Economic Development Foundation. “We immediately added the concrete pad.”
The improvement benefits area farmers, the agricultural industry and the barge and towing industry, he said. The dock can load or unload two barges at a time.
The city and Adams County also are cooperating to provide $450,000 in road improvements to accommodate increased commercial trucking from the port….
I had some vacation days during Thanksgiving week and decided to make a trip for AEP River Operations aboard the mv. Robert R. Jewell. It’s been almost eight years since I stood a regular pilot watch.
It was time to go out and see what has changed on the river.
On November 21, I boarded the boat at Golconda, Ill. The temperature was in the 40s. It’s a good thing I was dressed in warm clothes, because the first thing I had to do was get in the yawl for a brisk ride out to the boat.
After a quick lunch, I was off to the pilothouse to meet the captain, Terry Buck. Terry gave me a briefing on some of the new pilothouse equipment, and there were plenty of new things to learn—new radar, electronic chart system, GPS, rudder alarm and the computer for the office log. I told Capt. Buck that I was ready and took control of the boat, and up the Ohio River we started.
The first watch was uneventful, with me learning to use all of the new equipment. I was sure it was going to take a few days to learn how to use it all.
I came on watch just below Mount Vernon for the first midnight shift. I needed to see if I could stay up all night after getting a two-hour nap. (We’ll talk about crew endurance later.)
I noticed my first real change in the river during this watch. At Tobacco Patch, just below old Lock 48, the buoy line had changed since I made my last trip through here. You now run much closer to the Kentucky shore than I remembered. We got good water most of the way, about 30 feet on the sounder. At noon we were just above Newburgh Lock and I went off watch just below Cannelton. I hadn’t made a lock yet on my watch. The captain was probably wondering if I was actually going to do anything….
The Huntington Engineer District christened two vessels recently for use in performing maintenance and repairs to the district’s nine locks and dams. The ceremony was October 31 at Harris Riverfront Park in Huntington, W. Va.
The new towboat Kenneth Eddy will replace the mv. George W. Britton, which has been in service almost 30 years. The derrickbarge Roger Henry replaces the 50-year-old derrickbarge #49.
Orange Shipbuilding Company built both vessels at its yard in Orange, Texas. They were designed by the Corps of Engineers’ Philadelphia Marine Design Center.
The Eddy measures 124 by 34 feet with an 8-1/2-foot draft. It’s 3,000 hp. is produced by twin Cat 3512B diesels that turn five-blade, 80-inch wheels through Falk 2083MRH reduction gears….
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