NY Announces Zero-emissions Retrofit Project
New York’s Governor Cuomo announces retrofitted electric canal boat to demonstrate benefits of no-emission engine; NYSERDA, NYSDOT partnership with Canal Corp. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the launch of an all-electric dredge tender workboat on the Erie Canal in the Utica area. The project is the result of a partnership with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT). Additionally…
NY Canals to Temporarily Reopen
Open from Oswego to Waterford to Allow Stranded Boats to Reach Destinations. Sections of the Erie Canal and the Oswego Canal will temporarily reopen for a two-week period that begins Sunday, November 20, the New York State Canal Corporation announced. The eastern portion of the Erie Canal has been closed to navigation in the Mohawk Valley since major flooding in late August damaged several canal structures. To allow transient marine traffic to reach their destinations this season, portions of the canal system will reopen from November 20 through December 3.
The Empire State Navy
Of all the waterways in fable and lore, the Erie Canal is famed least for its maritime nature. Lake Superior may have swallowed the Edmund Fitzgerald, and the North Atlantic holed the Titanic, but they sing of the Erie Canal for a mule named Sal. The triumph of the canal was over land, not water. Fully 363 miles long, scaling mountains 500 ft. above sea-level with 83 locks, fording natural rivers on aqueducts or "water bridges," it was a pick and shovel and trowel job of a stupendous scale, so grandiose that some called it madness. Yet the original "Clinton's Ditch" helped write the destiny of North America, so greatly that in return it required expansion and major rebuilding twice, within its first ninety years.
New York Thruway Contract Awarded
The New York State Thruway Authority has awarded a contract to Penn Yan Marine Manufacturing Corporation for construction of a custom work boat for inspection and maintenance in the Tappan Zee Bridge area of New York. The model selected is Penn Yan's 2001 Spector, which is 20.5 ft. long, with an eight ft. beam. The model features Penn Yan's new Center Console with a unique forward deck, making it especially suited to the requirements of the job, by providing a large lockable equipment locker, as well as a large work platform at the bow, leaving considerable uncluttered cockpit area available. Powered by a Johnson 115 hp OceanPro outboard motor, the vessel will attain speeds of 36-38 mph.
A Tale of Tugs of Two Cities
There's N.Y., and there's N.Y., N.Y. They are as unalike as two places can be. One is upstate, the other is downstate. One is composed of small and medium-size towns, the other ranks with the biggest cities in the world. One is a land laced with rivers and canals, the other occupies islands on one of the Atlantic's broadest harbors. Attitudes and styles are different in both places, too. Ed Koch, a television personality who once campaigned for governor, can tell you from experience that a big-city boy never mentions "gingham dresses" north of White Plains. Waterford and Manhattan are a three-hour ride apart, two if you speed, but even the language sounds different in both places. But they both have their tugboats. And everyone loves tugboats.
