17Th Atb News

Along the way, ATBs gain speed, efficiency, safety – and popularity. Operators of articulated tugs and barges, or ATBs, say they like the maneuverability, weather reliability, stability, speed of these units, and the manner in which the tug pushes the barge. As a marine transportation concept, they can also simply be described as versatile. ATBs move petroleum, chemicals, coal, grain, containerized cargo and rail cars for customers on the U.S. coasts, rivers, the Great Lakes and overseas. As a result, demand for articulated units expanded in the last two decades with new technology.

Eleven years after the launch of its first Articulated Tug-Barge (ATB), Crowley Maritime Corporation christened its 17th ATB, the Liberty/750-3, yesterday at the VT Halter Marine Shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. The tugboat and 330,000-barrel petroleum tank barge are the final vessels to be built in a more than $1 Billion, decade-long ATB construction program undertaken by Crowley to expand the company’s U.S.-flag petroleum services fleet. “We set out to offer customers the safest…