![]() ![]() According to American Commercial Barge Line’s daily industry snapshot, American Currents, the queue at Calcasieu was 121, 131 and 131 August 1, 2 and 3, respectively. ![]() That schedule seems to be effectively reducing the queue, especially over the weekends. On the long weekends, traffic moves one-way in 12-hour intervals. On weeknights, vessel traffic moves eastbound for six hours and westbound for six hours. to 6:30 a.m., Monday through Thursday, and 24 hours a day from Thursday evening through Monday morning. Calcasieu is then open to navigation from 6:30 p.m. Now, the lock is closed for construction Monday through Thursday, from 6:30 a.m. Army Corps of Engineers, in collaboration with industry, to adjust the construction schedule. “It depends a lot on the guys locking through,” said Morin, a 14-year veteran with Deloach Marine Services. The constricted lock and reduced locking hours contribute to the nagging queue, no doubt, but Morin said greater efficiency at Calcasieu also depends on vessels being ready when their number is called. However, even though 23 tows cleared the queue the night of August 9, 22 new vessels arrived on turn for a net reduction of only one. That pace over a 12-hour period was pretty good compared to other shifts during construction thus far. Of the 23 tows that locked through overnight August 9, only a couple came through unassisted. The vast majority of tows now lock through with an assist boat. I wouldn’t come through here without an assist boat.” The last thing you want to do is puncture one of those tanks. “Some guys are coming through here with chemicals that are highly explosive, gases, all kinds of stuff. “The barge will be just low enough where that point will just start ripping stuff up,” Morin said. Morin said, especially early into construction, some tows would lock through without an assist boat, but he said it’s too easy for a tow to drift over to the south side of the lock and catch the hull of a barge on the template. That caution has slowed the locking process, as tows hug the north guide wall at a slow pace. With the template in place and low-to-the-water steel pilings accumulating where the new wall will be, towboat crews have grown quite cautious as they traverse the lock. Morin was on duty the evening of August 9, guiding tows through the lock. Devall Towing, among others, also has vessels offering assist services at Calcasieu. Poseidon, one of the vessels offering its services as an assist boat for tows locking through Calcasieu. Morin is captain aboard Deloach Marine’s mv. Chad Morin said, motioning to the template. Among mariners, the infamous template has garnered a nickname. Crews are using a steel template, mounted atop guide pilings, to allow for precise placement of the 356 new pilings. New metal pilings are being driven along the length of the south side. As work progressed through June and July, the queue often swelled to the 120s and 130s, especially during the week.īut the schedule isn’t the only thing that has slowed navigation.Īt Calcasieu, construction crews first removed the old south guide wall, comprised of waterlogged and splintered timber piles. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and open to navigation on weeknights and all weekend. Initially, the construction project, which will extend through late 2019, called for the lock to be closed to navigation from 7 a.m. Some tows on queue that week waited as long as four days to make it through Calcasieu, due in part to the limited lock schedule during construction. That night, there were around 100 vessels tied up to the east and west of the near-70-year-old structure waiting to lock through. For the lock operator on duty and vessel crews in the area, though, the day was just getting started. As the sun set August 9 over the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) and Calcasieu Lock in Lake Charles, La., the construction crew working to replace the lock’s south guide wall had already departed for the week. ![]()
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