German Waterways Strike: 150 Barges Held Up
More than 150 barges are anchored at or near locks in western Germany's river and canal systems hit by a lock workers strike, report Platts, citing the German waterway shipping lobby BDB and German shipping firm sources. The German waterway system has 435 locks, the lion's share in western Germany. The small number in eastern Germany have been excluded from the strikes because of massive recovery work from last month's catastrophic flooding there. The west German strikes, called by the country's service workers union Ver.di…
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.
Trash Skimmer Boats
United Marine International LLC, of Baltimore, has delivered new Trashcat skimmer vessels to the cities of Baltimore and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The City of Baltimore took delivery of the first of two low profile Trashcat boats. UMI Model #TC-200L, with a 200 cu. ft. on-board storage capacity, is designed with a side-mounted operator's cab, which provides the operator with nearly seven ft. of overhead clearance. The second vessel, UMI Model #TC-200LP, has a unique extra low profile, which is obtained by providing a side-mounted operator's cab with a tilt-over feature. The City of Baltimore specified the design to enable the skimmer to maneuver under pedestrian bridges specially designed with low slopes to assist handicapped tourists to cross its Inner Harbor canal systems.
