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Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Sunshine Skyway Bridge News

28 Mar 2024

Baltimore Bridge Collapse Highlights Need to Protect Critical Foundations

NTSB investigators on the cargo vessel Dali, which struck and collapsed the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, 2024. (Photo: Peter Knudson/NTSB)

The collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge has highlighted what engineers say is an urgent need to better protect the piers holding up spans over shipping channels as the size of cargo ships has grown in recent decades.Federal authorities continue an investigation into why a massive cargo ship lost power and crashed into a pier of the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday, bringing down the structure and killing six workers who had been filling potholes atop it.The Maryland Transportation Authority did not respond to questions about what…

10 Sep 2020

Sensor Systems Improve Marine Navigation Near US Naval Bases

A Coast Guard ATON (Aids to Navigation) buoy in Kings Bay, Ga., that will house one of the new PORTS current meters. (Photo: NOAA)

Maritime navigational safety near two U.S. Navy installations in Kings Bay, Ga., and Portsmouth, N.H. has been improved thanks to new Physical Oceanographic Real-Time Systems, also known as PORTS, installed by NOAA and the U.S. Navy. They are the first new PORTS in two years, and the 34th and 35th in the nationwide network.The system near Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, the East Coast home to America’s Ohio-class submarines, is an integrated series of sensors which will provide critical real-time information on oceanographic and meteorological conditions.

25 Jan 2016

Port Tampa Bay to Reap Fruits of Expanded Panama Canal

Port Tampa Bay is spending $21.5 million on a pair of new cranes that will be able to unload bigger container ships, and it is investing millions more to make it easier for trucks and trains to exit the port and be on their way. The cranes will pass beneath the Sunshine Skyway bridge in March and be up and running by May, just before the widened Panama Canal expansion is scheduled to open later this year. With more cargo expected to come to the eastern United States by sea, the port is betting that it can stake a claim to some of the new cargo traffic flowing through the canal. The equipment is on its way to Tampa right now. Officials said the cranes will help open the port up to new business.

03 Oct 2013

Crowley Vessel Performs Second At-Sea Rescue in Less than a Year

Photo: Crowley

The crew aboard Crowley Maritime Corporation’s articulated tug-barge (ATB) Achievement/650-8 has performed its second rescue in nine months, this time saving the lives of four individuals aboard a 30-foot fishing boat taking on water 35 miles offshore from Clearwater, Fla., during a strong storm. On the evening of September 15, the Achievement/650-8 was instructed to stand by and not proceed inbound to Tampa Bay due to a strong squall moving through the area, which brought torrential rains, 50-knot winds and heavy seas.

15 Jan 2013

Crowley’s ATB Crew Rescues Man from Tampa Bay

left to right: Alan Williams, AB; Doug Carson, third mate; Pat McGee, cook; Ron Robinson, chief mate; Chris Farmer, AB/tankerman; Vince Mull, chief engineer; Travis Stringer, AB/tankerman, and  Gus Cramer, captain.

The crew aboard Crowley Maritime Corporation’s articulated tug-barge (ATB) Achievement/650-8 recently performed a heroic rescue of an injured man who was struggling to stay afloat near the base of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa Bay, Fla. The on-watch crew noticed a man bobbing in the water on the port side of the vessel around the same time that emergency radio calls from the St. Petersburg Coast Guard were issued. Crowley’s Allen Williams, AB, responded by immediately throwing the stranded man a life ring and Captain Gus Cramer sounded the man overboard alarm.

29 Mar 2007

Coast Guard Helping Stuck Ship Back into Shipping Channel

Coast Guard crews are working to get a freighter ship unstuck after it lost power and ran aground near the central span of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. The bridge was shut down in both directions this morning as a precaution, snarling rush hour traffic. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the freighter lost power after passing through the central span of the bridge. The pilot of the vessel ran it into a sandbar so it wouldn’t drift near the bridge. Fox showed Coast Guard tugboats circling the freighter. The most recent view showed them helping the ship back into the deeper waters of the shipping channel. Source: fox