Weekly News Summary For December 29, 2008-January 4, 2009:
Towboats in the computer simulation model for the proposed 150-foot-wide sector gate that crosses the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) as part of the surge barrier project got high marks for realism from two towing industry captains and a Corps captain in tests run this month, according to copies of the questionnaire received by The Waterways Journal.
Simulation testing will resume the first week of January and is scheduled to run through February.
Participating wheelmen fill out a questionnaire after simulation runs and are asked to rate the difficulty of bringing a tow through the sector gate under normal conditions and severe conditions, including fast currents associated with storm surge and high tides, along with wind speeds up to 25 knots.
The simulations are being run at the Corps of Engineers’ Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, Miss. Dennis W. Webb, chief of the Navigation Section of the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), said engineers and scientists worked hard to get the modeling right.
The simulator, built by Computer Science Corporation of Washington, D.C., has been used in modeling several navigation areas over the years, including the Galveston Causeway, Bolivar Roads at the intersection of the Houston Ship Channel, High Island Bend, the Port Isabella Bridge and Matagorda Bay.
Webb said he enlisted the help of Raymond Butler, executive director of the Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association (GICA), to designate tow lengths, widths and horsepower to use as models for the simulation runs. The tows ranged in length from 362 feet to 1,080 feet, width from 54 feet to 108 feet with horsepower ratings from 1,200 to 1,800. Simulation models included light and loaded barges…
On December 19—the very day that new water discharge regulations were set to take effect for all towing vessels over 79 feet long—a federal judge granted an order delaying the new rules until February 6, 2009.
That means that vessel owners will have until that date to get into compliance with the new Vessel General Permit issued by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The regulation itself is the “permit.” Vessels will not have to apply for an actual physical permit, but will have to comply with its requirements, including keeping records of all discharges aboard each vessel. Vessels less than 79 feet long will be exempt for two years while the EPA studies vessel discharges.
The delaying order was issued by Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit in response to an emergency motion filed December 18 by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Shipping Industry Ballast Water Coalition. The American Waterways Operators is a founding member of the coalition…
Reversing his position not to testify before the Coast Guard, Capt. Terry Carver, 38, the “runaway captain” of the towboat Mel Oliver, testified about what he knew of the collision and oil spill in July that shut down the Mississippi River for four days.
Lt. Cmdr. Melissia Harper, who is heading up the investigation for Coast Guard Sector New Orleans, had expected to complete her report on the cause of the accident by year’s end but, after reopening the hearing and receiving Carver’s testimony on December 18, she expects to submit the report no sooner than January.
Carver, who other witnesses said was obsessed with his girlfriend in Illinois, said he got a phone call from his nephew on July 20, saying he saw the woman in a truck with a man. Carver left the Mel Oliver to confront his girlfriend with only his apprentice mate on board to steer the vessel.
Carver worked for DRD Towing, who crewed the boat owned by American Commercial Lines…
After working eight years for Candies Shipbuilders LLC, a two-year-old Houma, La.-based company with 140 employees serving the offshore crew boat and supply boat industry, Dale Martin wanted to strike out on his own.
Martin knew the offshore business, and had contacts built up. He founded Lafayette Workboat Rentals in Broussard, La., with longtime friend and marine mechanic Mike Donner three years ago, renting bareboat charter workboats.
“We worked directly with the oil companies like Conoco Philips from Day One,” he said. But Martin wondered if he should stick to what he knew.
“The oilfields are volatile,” he said. “People kept asking me if I had pushboats or tugs, so we went in that direction. We felt the inland business allows us to offer more stability to our employees.”
That promise has paid off. Growth has come quickly for the entrepreneur.
Martin said, “In April 2007, we bought our first combined tug and offshore utility boat, the Miss Addi, a little 600 hp. pushboat. We did rig-tending in the oil patch. We began with five employees in April 2007. Today we have 81.”…
The Robert E. Lee, an “iconic” floating restaurant riverboat replica fondly remembered by generations of St. Louis diners [WJ, December 1], was sold at auction by Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers on December 19 to the single bidder—a father-and-son team. The auction took place in Festus, Mo.
Twenty-two-year-old Andrew Petroff bid $200,000 for his father, Steve Petroff, owner of Petroff Trucking Company Inc. of Collinsville, Ill., across the river from St. Louis. Andrew’s father coached him over the phone. The auction began with an asking bid of $500,000, and dropped from there. The winning bid was a bargain for a boat whose estimated value was well over $1 million.
Petroff told local news organizations he wants to re-open the boat as a restaurant again, perhaps with a nightclub, on the St. Louis riverfront. He plans to begin renovations at an undisclosed location, and to seek permits from St. Louis officials. It remains to be seen whether the boat’s earlier success can be resurrected in today’s economic climate…
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