Riverbank News

An electrical generator set (genset) failure and subsequent loss of steering led to the grounding of a towing vessel near Greenville, Miss., the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Thursday.The towing vessel Marquette Warrior was pushing 35 loaded dry cargo barges down the Lower Mississippi River on Nov. 21, 2021, when several barges grounded on the riverbank. Four barges were damaged, including a hopper barge with bean cargo that partially sank. None of the nine people on board the Marquette Warrior were injured.

The death toll from the sinking of an overcrowded ferry carrying Hindu devotees in northern Bangladesh climbed to 50 on Monday, with many passengers missing a day after the disaster.Onlookers and relatives of the missing gathered along the riverbank as rescuers searched for bodies, witnesses said."I just want to see the face of my mother," Deepak Chandra Roy said, speaking through tears as he searched for his mother.

The National Transportation Board said Thursday that a Mississippi River towing vessel’s pilot and its captain pushed its tow up against a riverbank too close to a railroad track, leading to a collision and train derailment near Galland, Iowa.Marine Investigation Report 22/22 details the NTSB’s investigation into the Nov. 13, 2021, collision between the towing vessel Baxter Southern and a BNSF coal train transiting the track along the shoreline of the Upper Mississippi River. The train struck a barge that was overhanging the railroad track.

The London Fire Brigade has added a pair of new fireboats on the Thames as part of a £40 million investment made by City Hall to expand the Brigade’s fleet of equipment and vehicles.The new 16.2-meter-long boats, Tanner and Errington, are named after Auxiliary Fireman Harry Errington and Auxiliary Firewoman Gillian Tanner, who in the Second World War were both awarded medals for bravery. The call signs for the boats are H23A and H23B, a reference to Adam Mere and Billy Faust, two London firefighters who died fighting a fire in 2004.Built by Holyhead Marine…

Paraguayan firm Ingeniería de Topografía y Caminos S.A. (T&C) has ordered a customised Cutter Suction Dredger (CSD) 500 from the Dutch shipbuilder Damen.T&C will use the dredger to transform the southern riverbank of the capital Asunción, in the Costanera Sur project. "The modular dredger will sharply increase sand production, required to meet the ambitious projects deadlines," Damen said.According to Damen, parts of the city have flooded annually for decades due to their proximity to the river.

It was a beautiful mid-summer afternoon in the nation’s heartland. The skies were clear, the sun was shining and the variable southwest breeze barely caused a ripple on the muddy water of the winding river. Optimistic fishermen lined the riverbanks and a few recreational boaters were cruising close to the floating docks lining both shores.This tranquil scene on this busy waterway was about to change…and quickly.A parting of the waysAbout a half mile upriver, a 95-foot tug was proceeding southbound on a slow bell with two barges made up end-to-end along her starboard side.

Australia’s new, nearly completed icebreaker built at Damen's Galati shipyard in Romania is traveling to the Netherlands to undergo final commissioning and sea trials that had been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.The Nuyina is currently under a month-long tow from Romania to the Dutch port of Vlissingen, where teams of equipment installers from Western Europe will access the new research and supply vessel (RSV) for final commissioning of essential propulsion, electrical and navigation systems…

Ships transporting cargo from Argentina's Rosario grain hub through the Parana River are having to reduce their cargoes after a bank collapse obstructed the navigation channel, exporters told Reuters.Dredgers are working in the Parana to the south of the Rosario complex to try to restore the necessary depth of water for export traffic, but at present have no estimate of when normal operations on the grains superhighway can resume."Ships cannot leave because they do not have the adequate safety margin…

Bodies of all but nine of the 28 victims of a deadly boat crash in the Hungarian capital have been recovered in an intensive search up and down the Danube involving units on water, air and land, Hungarian police said on Friday.The Mermaid, a pleasure boat carrying 33 South Korean tourists and two Hungarian crew, capsized and sank on May 29 after a large cruise liner struck it from behind as both vessels passed under a bridge in the centre of Budapest.Seven Koreans were saved and 19 bodies have been recovered so far in the worst accident in more than half a century on Europe's longest river. Among those still missing and presumed dead are the Hungarian captain and a Korean child.The recovery operation…

Strength, Safety and Sustainability are at the heart of this Homeland Security stakeholder’s mission set.For over 30 years, high performance fiber rope manufacturer Phillystran has worked with the U.S. Coast Guard to supply mooring and towing lines. As innovations in fiber rope technology have enabled lighter and stronger ropes, the Coast Guard has not been slow to take advantage of these and other developments.In step with most maritime stakeholders, NAVSEA approved fiber ropes are widely used by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Marine Design Center (MDC) will soon be releasing a sources sought notice for the construction of the Mat Boat, a 188 x 74 x 10-ftl. deck barge, for the Mat Sinking Unit (MSU) located on the Mississippi River. The barge is to be built to American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) Rules for Service on Rivers and Intracoastal Waterways. The sources sought notice is only for the construction of the barge, shown in Figure B, and not for the final product which incorporates a government furnished robotics package shown in Figure A.

Eleven people on a river cruise were killed when their boat collided with a tugboat late on Monday in the Russian city of Volgograd, which is hosting matches in the soccer World Cup, rescue services said.Emergencies services received notification at around 10 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Monday that the vessels had collided on the Volga River, about 250 meters from the riverbank.There were 16 people on board the pleasure craft, all of them Russians, the RIA news agency cited the local administration as saying.Five people had been rescued…

The U.S. Coast Guard said it is working with local agencies to respond to a barge fire on the Mobile River near Mobile, Ala.Coast Guard Sector Mobile received a report from Mobile County Fire Department that a barge carrying scrap metal caught fire at mile marker three on the Mobile River at approximately 10 a.m. on Sunday.According to Mobile Fire-Rescue, two linked barges carrying demolished/crushed cars are ablaze.No crewmembers were reported to be aboard the barges when they went up in flames, and there have been no reports of injuries or pollution.The barges are aground on the riverbank.Mobile County Fire Department is on scene conducting…

Two local contractors in Nigeria recently took delivery of 10-inch Wolverine Class Dredges, designed and manufactured by DSC Dredge at its facility in Greenbush, Mich. As the political capital of Delta State, Asaba is a rapidly expanding city along the banks of the Niger River Delta. There is a growing demand for infrastructure improvement projects, including roads and livable space along the Niger River. Yet, this fast-flowing river brings sand downstream from the interior of the nation.

Over that past 15 to 20 years there has been a revolution in U.S. ship docking tugs. Larger container ships and tankers made obsolete the conventional single and twin propeller tugs that could serve either line haul or ship docking functions. Pilots and insurers wanted modern technology that, more often than not, meant stern mounted azimuthing Z-drives. This revolution eventually includes ship docking on the Mississippi around the Port of New Orleans. But mixed in with the ship moorings and piers…

It has been said that the vast majorities of collisions at sea occur in near perfect weather conditions. That trend can also be applied to the inland river system. Not too long ago, it was a beautiful mid-summer afternoon in the nation’s heartland. The skies were clear, the sun was shining and the variable southwest breeze barely caused a ripple on the muddy water of the winding river. Hopeful fishermen lined the riverbanks and a few recreational boats were cruising close to the floating docks lining both shores. This tranquil scene on this busy waterway was about to change … and quickly.

The board of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority voted today to accept an annual budget for 2015. The budget includes $20 million in capital investments to enhance maritime operations and sediment management. The port’s balance sheet also allows it to continue investing in its European liner service, Cleveland-Europe Express (CEE), which was launched in April. The port is expanding CEE service in 2015 to two sailings a month between Antwerp and Cleveland, as announced in September.

There’s no debate about LNG in New York. ELCO, New York State Canals team up to retrofit 86-year old tugboat with an electric motor. In June, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the launch of an all-electric dredge tender work boat on the Erie Canal in the Utica area of New York. The project, a partnership with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), utilized an electric motor supplied and installed by Elco Motor Yachts, LLC, of Athens, New York. Significantly, the New York State Canal Corporation collaborated with Yorkville-based New West Technologies, LLC, in order to determine how best to transition the State’s work boat fleet to a cleaner propulsion system.

Bangladeshi rescuers struggled against a strong current and choppy river waters on Tuesday in the search for a ferry that capsized with more than 200 passengers on board with about 120 of them missing, many feared dead. Low-lying Bangladesh, with extensive inland waterways and slack safety standards, has an appalling record of ferry accidents, with casualties sometimes running into the hundreds. Overcrowding is a common feature of many of the accidents, and each time the government vows to toughen regulations. The ferry that sank on Monday, the MV Pinak-6, had a capacity to carry 85 passengers, according to the inland transport authority. It went over and sank in the Padma river about 30 km (18 miles) southwest of the capital, Dhaka.

A ferry with about 200 passengers on board capsized in Bangladesh on Monday in a river southwest of the capital, Dhaka, and about 100 people were unaccounted for, the chief of the district administration said. Low-lying Bangladesh, with extensive inland waterways and slack safety standards, has an appalling record of ferry accidents, with casualties sometimes running into the hundreds. Overcrowding is a common factor in many of the accidents and each time there is an accident the government vows to toughen regulations. Mohammad Saiful Hasan Badal, deputy commissioner of Munshiganj district, said about 100 passengers had been rescued from the vessel after it went down in the Padma river.

The US Coast Guard apprises that a study by its Research and Development Center concluded that the current rules governing vessel traffic across Chicago’s electric fish dispersal barrier effectively address the risks posed by the barrier’s electrified waters. The electric fish barrier system in the CSSC was built and is maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to limit the spread of various aquatic invasive species, including Asian carp, between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins. Coast Guard regulations prescribe operating rules and guidance for commercial and recreational mariners transiting the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The study found that existing regulations substantially mitigate the risks associated with the barrier.

Response crews commenced lifting operations of the 154-foot sunken towboat from the Mississippi River bank near LeClaire, Iowa, Monday. Stephen L. Colby salvage crews worked to cradle and dewater the vessel in an effort to remove extra weight while lifting the towboat. Crews dealt with below freezing conditions and long hours throughout response efforts and continue to conduct pollution mitigation through cleanup operations. Approximately 39,900 gallons of oily-water mixture has been recovered from the river, 89,000 gallons of oily-water mixture recovered from the Stephen L.

The U.S. Coast Guard reported that response crews continued work salvaging the partially submerged vessel, Stephen L. Colby, near LeClaire, Iowa despite stormy weather conditions. Crews have been working against deteriorating weather conditions for two days to ensure any spilled fuel is cleaned up and proper salvage preparations are in place to raise the 144-foot towboat. In spite of icing and below freezing conditions salvage crews connected a bow slings to the vessel's frames in preparation for raising the 144-foot towboat from the Mississippi River bank.