Mississippi River System May Return to Normal by the End of July

Barge transportation on the Mississippi River system may return to normal operating conditions by the end of July. That’s what most barge transportation analysts are saying in the aftermath of floods that plagued the American Midwest and the Mississippi River basin for most of the spring and early summer.

All of the locks that were previously closed due to flood conditions have been reopened but persistent high water and fast currents continue to play havoc with normal barge operations in some important sections of the waterway system. Specifically, a sunken barge in the vicinity of Rock Island, IL has created a one-way traffic restriction in that part of the system while farther south, near Baton Rouge, LA maximum barge tow sizes and high tug power rating restrictions have been place on commercial navigation in that section of the river due to extraordinarily fast currents. These restrictions are not expected to be lifted before July 26.

Readers of The Seaway Channel, in a poll conducted from June 23-30 correctly predicted that this year’s flooding would create problems on the Mississippi that might persist for at least four weeks. As things have turned out, our readers have been proven right once again.

Ironhead Marine Builds Innovative Floating Trade Exhibit in Toledo

Ironhead Marine Incorporated, a fabricating and contracting company located in the Port of Toledo, has been selected by OSK Marketing & Communications Inc. to fabricate an innovative new floating trade exhibition. The Exiderdome, commissioned by Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc., is a traveling technology expo and learning laboratory built upon a converted tanker barge.

Ironhead Marine is converting an oil tanker into a platform for the construction of the exposition display, which is built from shipping containers. When finished, the display includes fifty-five shipping containers, 220 tons of steel, 12.42 miles of power cables and 1.24 miles of data cables. The barge will be towed by tug boat to Chicago’s Navy Pier where it will debut on the evening of Monday, July 21^st and host visitors all that week.

Last year, Ironhead Marine relocated their operations from Temperance, Mich., to the Port of Toledo and opened a high bay facility to compliment the dry dock operations already located in the Port. The high bay facility is the first phase of the ship yard modernization project that will continue over the next four years and that will ultimately offer ship and ship module construction services.

New Study: Ballast Water Management is the Answer on Invasive Species

The Seaway Channel has obtained an early copy of a report by the National Research Council, an affiliate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, which will be released this afternoon that recommends best ballast water management practices such as those recently adopted by the U.S. St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation and Transport Canada as the best way to curtail the introduction of new invasive species in the Great Lakes ecosystem.

The report comes as welcome news to both nation’s Seaway managers and the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway maritime industry in that it serves as an endorsement of the industry’s proactive approach to ballast water management. In recent months the Canadian and U.S. governments have stepped up and harmonized their ballast water management regulations and enforcement regimes to confront the challenge posed by aquatic invasive species such as zebra mussels and other non-indigenous fresh water creatures which are believed to have been introduced into the Great Lakes through ship’s ballast water. The additional measures include mandatory deep-sea ballast water exchange and salt water flushing which is scientifically proven to reduce the risk of fresh water creatures surviving the journey into the Great Lakes.

The document produced by the National Research Council’s Committee on the St. Lawrence Seaway is just as likely to disappoint some radical environmental groups who had hoped that the Committee might recommend shutting down the St. Lawrence Seaway altogether or at least closing the System to ocean vessel traffic. In fact, the panel of scientists who authored the study dismissed those options as potentially harmful to the economies and the environments of both nations. In addition to the certain loss of economic opportunity and jobs related to the international trade enabled by the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway maritime industry, the panel also mentioned the damage to the environment and increased cost of shipping goods via other modes of transportation such as rail and truck compared to the relatively environmentally benign nature of moving goods on the water.

St. Lawrence Seaway Ballast Water Inspection Process

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