BMT Delivers Port Engineer Training
BMT Designers & Planners, Inc. (BMT), an operating company of BMT Group Ltd, has delivered its training program to assist Port Engineers (PEs) with maximizing investments in the repair and sustainment of their maritime assets. With the complex management of ship repair constantly changing, PEs are tasked with understanding many challenging requirements. These include surface preparation and preservation, drydock evolutions and safety, propulsion system alignment, welding processes and procedures, nondestructive testing, inspections, general shipyard safety and more.
Oil Spill in James River
Coast Guard Marine Safety Office Hampton Roads is responding to a report of a diesel fuel spill from the tank barge VB 53 on the upper James River below Richmond. The spill was reported to the Coast Guard National Response Center at 11:41 a.m. on Sunday, May 8, 2005. The barge was being pushed south on the James River in an area known as Kingsland Reach, about 2 miles northwest of the Interstate 295 bridge, when it sustained damage to two cargo tanks. The barge is presently aground and has a port list. The owners have submitted a lightering and salvage plan to the Coast Guard for approval. The amount of diesel fuel spilled has not been determined. The barge is surrounded by oil containment boom and other booms have been deployed upstream and downstream to limit the spread of the oil.
$17.5M Bunkering Contract Awarded
Vane Line Bunkering Inc.*, Baltimore, Md., was awarded on March 14, 2007, a $17,507,083 firm-fixed-price contract for Atlantic Dedicated Barge Transportation Services.Work will be performed in Baltimore, Md., and is expected to be completed by March 31, 2012.Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.There were an unknown number of bids solicited via the World Wide Web on Oct. 17, 2006, and one bid was received.The Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, Alexandria, Va., is the contracting activity (W81GYE-07-C-0005).
Manitowoc Awarded Contract for Double-Hull Tug/Barge Unit
The Manitowoc Company, Inc. announced that Vane Line Bunkering, Inc. has awarded Manitowoc Marine Group (MMG) a contract for the construction of a 480-ft., 145,000-barrel, double-hulled hot oil tank barge and an accompanying 6,000-horsepower tug. The ocean-going articulated tug and barge (AT/B) unit is slated for delivery in fourth quarter of 2006. This contract also provides Vane Brothers with an option for an identical AT/B unit to be delivered in the third quarter of 2007. Other contract terms were not disclosed. The Vane contract represents the eleventh double-hulled barge and fourth ocean-going tug to be built by Manitowoc Marine Group. Both tug and barge, which will serve the mid-Atlantic petroleum markets, will be classified in compliance with ABS, Coast Guard, and OPA-90 standards.
