Weekly News Summary For December 4-10, 2006:
Traffic on the Tennessee River halted at Mile 259 after a barge pushed by a Maryland Marine Inc. towboat struck the auxiliary lock at Wilson Locks at Florence, Ala., about 1 p.m. Tuesday. The accident extensively damaged a lower gate.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
The accident effectively shut down Tennessee River traffic from Muscle Shoals, Ga., to Knoxville, Tenn.
Main Chamber Also Out
Wilson Lock’s main chamber was closed for repair after it was damaged August 3, also by a Maryland Marine Inc. tow. Now, both locks are out of service.
David Bethurum, physical support branch chief for the Nashville Engineer District’s, said he anticipates the main chamber will be repaired by December 6….
The Army Corps of Engineers plans to blast limestone formations that could interfere with navigation during low-water conditions on two reaches of the Upper Mississippi.
The two areas are at Grand Tower, Ill., from Mile 79 to Mile 80 (100 river miles south of St. Louis) and at Thebes Gap south of Cape Girardeau, Mo., from Miles 35 to 46. The rock pinnacles are within the navigation channel.
“If the St. Louis stage gets to minus 4 feet or the Cape Girardeau stage gets to minus 9 feet, the clearance is less than nine feet,” said Leonard Hopkins, project manager for the Corps of Engineers.
On Tuesday, the Upper Mississippi at St. Louis was at minus 1.7 feet and Cape Girardeau was at 6.6 feet.
Currently, the Corps’ timeline calls for the blasting to take place in February, and the contractor must complete the blasting in a 45-day period….
(First part of a three-part series)
Maintenance dredging to keep waterways open to authorized depths has been lagging in recent years. That’s the consensus of operators, maritime associations and a former Corps of Engineers administrator interviewed by The Waterways Journal.
While some of the major channels, such as the Lower Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, are fully maintained, it is the secondary channels that seem to have the most problems with maintenance dredging.
“We have no problem with dredging in our area from New Orleans to Baton Rouge,” said Capt. Chris Reider, vice president of the New Orleans-Baton Rouge Steamship Pilots Association (NOBRA). “In fact, Joaquin Mujica (operations manager of the Corps’ Mississippi River Division) has always been a great help in getting the dredging done at our request.”
But other heavily-used channels are not so fortunate, including the 1,300-mile-long Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, which runs from St. Marks, Fla., to Brownsville, Texas. The GIWW has so many dredging issues that a public relations campaign is being developed in hopes of increasing awareness of dredging needs.
The “Tons Left Behind” campaign, which Raymond Butler said was “borrowed” from Great Lakes interests, “will highlight costs to users of barge services of the ‘less than project depth’ loading practices required for most reaches of the GIWW these days.”…
More barge and towing companies are coming face-to-face with an unusual request from personnel. If a company responds incorrectly – in a time when operations are having difficulty attracting qualified mariners – it could land the company and the employee in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service.
“We have more and more people calling and saying they want a 1099 form, not a W-2 form,” said one administrative employee for a marine service company. “They’re doing it because they don’t want us to withhold taxes from their paychecks.”
A 1099 form reports what a company pays independent contractors.
However, the way most barge or towing companies operate, paying mariners as independent contractors could expose the company to significant liability, according to Marc Hebert, an attorney with Jones Walker LLC based in New Orleans, La., who specializes in the maritime and business law.
“Marine operators or towboat companies should look to the IRS guidelines to see if it’s okay for them to treat their employees as independent contractors – as any company should, whether it’s Wal-Mart, Home Depot or a construction company,” Hebert said….
The Waterways Industries Association of Paducah recently presented the Seamen’s Church Institute with a $1,000 check to assist with its annual “Christmas on the River” program. It marked the first time the association had contributed to the effort.
The check was presented by Waterways Industries Association president Tom Druitt, director of human resources for B&H Towing Company.
Although best known for its annual Christmas party, which attracts up to a thousand inland river industry executives, office personnel and off-duty boat personnel, the organization is also involved with Paducah’s annual Barbecue on the River festival and the Propeller Club’s “Adopt a towboat” program. This year’s Christmas party is scheduled for December 14 at the Executive Inn overlooking the Ohio River….
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