Breakaway Barges Wreak Havoc on Morning Commute
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
20 January 2012
By Chris Togneri
Coast Guard investigators are trying to determine whether
equipment failure, river currents, weather or human error could
have caused a chain reaction of barge collisions that rattled two
bridges, halted traffic on the Monongahela River and delayed
morning commuters Thursday.
"When a barge gets loose, it's bad," said Cmdr. Richard Timme of
the Coast Guard in Pittsburgh, noting that each barge contained
1,500 tons of coal and held the equivalent of 60 semis loaded with
cargo. "There is huge, huge mass and energy behind those barges."
The Coast Guard closed a portion of the Monongahela to traffic, at
least until the sunken barge is removed, Timme said. The closure
could last days.
Extended closures are costly to tow companies and those awaiting
cargo, said Jim McCarville, executive director of the Port of
Pittsburgh Commission. It costs about $500 an hour in fuel and
manpower for tow companies to move cargo, he said, and if vessels
wait at locks, the cost can escalate.
The Marge McFarlin towboat, owned by Ingram Barge Co. of
Nashville, was pushing 12 barges loaded with coal from West
Virginia to U.S. Steel's Clairton Works, Timme said. Two barges
came loose around 2 a.m. near the Liberty Bridge, he said.
"Something happened," Timme said. "Whether it lost power, a line
snapped or it struck the bridge, we don't know."
Ingram spokesman Keel Hunt said the company is investigating but
would not release information on the captain or crew. He said the
captain "alertly" notified Coast Guard officials of the breakaway
barges and corralled the others.
Nobody was injured, and there was no threat of river pollution,
Timme said. Coast Guard officials ordered drug and alcohol testing
of the towboat crew.
One loose barge drifted downstream and sank near the Fort Duquesne
Incline. Crews from River Salvage of Neville Island began work to
raise it.
The other loose barge struck a moored barge filled with sand at
Frank Bryan Inc., a South Side construction materials supply
business, Timme said. The sand barge broke loose, and both barges
drifted to the Smithfield Street Bridge. The sand barge crashed
sideways into a pier, and the coal barge wedged against it.
Crews spent hours unloading the barges before moving them back to
the Frank Bryan facility.
Bridge inspectors temporarily closed the Liberty, Panhandle,
Smithfield Street and Fort Pitt bridges, to check for damage.
PennDOT spokesman Jim Struzzi said they found no visible damage on
the Liberty Bridge, and officials believe the barge that sank did
not strike the Fort Pitt Bridge. The sand barge scraped a
Smithfield Street Bridge pier, but did not cause structural
damage, Struzzi said.
Port Authority spokesman Jim Ritchie said one barge scuffed a pier
of the Panhandle Bridge, which carries T light-rail cars across
the river, and the Port Authority transferred T riders to shuttle
buses at South Hills Junction while the bridge was closed. The T
carries about 25,000 passengers a day, split between morning and
afternoon rush hours, Ritchie said.
Chris Togneri can be reached at ctogneri@tribweb.com or
412-380-5632.