The Waterways Journal
19 June 2006
By Katie Schulze
The Port of Pittsburgh is getting busier, with lockages up 12.5 percent in 2005 and up 23 percent in the first quarter of 2006, with lockages on both the Ohio and the Monongahela rivers exceeding totals higher than any quarter since 2002, which was a record year for the port. All totals were measured as part of the Army Corps of Engineers' Lock Performance Monitoring System.
Port director Jim McCarville said the increases at the port district, which encompasses an 11-county area and essentially all 200 miles of commercially navigable waterways in southwestern Pennsylvania, are due to coal shipments that have increased as power plant operators begin installing pollution control scrubbers that remove sulfur dioxide. This allows companies to use seam coal, which has a higher sulfur content but has a better burn quality. The port district could also see increased shipments of limestone, which is used in scrubbers.
"We are seeing growth, and we expect it to continue," he said. "There are problems with other modes of transportation. Fuel costs and equipmnt shortages bode well for waterborne transportation."
Also noted is that coal traffic is up at both Emsworth and Dashields by nearly 30 percent and more than 15 percent at Montgomery. McCarville noted that although the Port of Pittsburgh Commission (PPC) is glad to see traffic up, those locks within the PPC area are already busy, small and between 70-87 years old.
Of total tonnage for the port district, McCarville said the breakdown is about 77 percent coal or coke; 3 percent petroleum or related products; 2 percent chemical products; 13 percent crude materials; mostly sand and gravel; and 2 percent of manufactured goods, mostly iron and steel.
Although the amount of transported steel is not what it used to be, McCarville is quick to point out that a considerable amount of steel is still being moved
"We're still talking about 3 million tons; of that mostly 21/2 million of that is steel," he said. "That is still sizeable. People believe it has left the area, but there is still quite a bit in the area. There are a lot of ores and rolled steel.
McCarville said one of the biggest issues remaining is the funding level for lock and dam projects. Although tonnage is up, McCarville said an emergency outage, or even worse, a major failure, could drastically affect those rising figures.
"There are some critical situations," he said. "On the Lower Mon project with Locks and Dam Nos. 3, 4 and 5, it was started in 1994 and was supposed to be done in 2004. It may not be done until 2016-2019, depending on funding. We are still 10 years away. The old dam at Elizabeth is still in a precarious position....We have several ticking time bombs."
The Port of Pittsburgh Commission has worked with graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University and Concept2Solution, a technology company, to develop a lock navigation aid similar to the system used by pilots to land aircraft.
The technology assists pilots in their lock approach by presenting the pilot with essential, precise information in near-real time, including essential distances between the tow and the lock and conditions at the lock, such as dam opening and river and wind conditions. All information is overlaid on an electronic navigation chart.
Smart Lock provides annual savings by improving reliability and predictability by speeding lockages by 10 minutes, reducing accidents and allowing locking in fog conditions.
The PPC, which owns the patent rights to Smart Lock, has now licensed Jeppesen Marine, a subsidiary of Boeing, to commercialize the product to towing companies.
A new practicum project is underway with graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University with the challenge to assume that there was a wireless connection at locks and dams along the Ohio.
Students would answer questions like what the system would look like and how it would change business for all stakeholders of the river system.
The PPC recognized outgoing MSU-Pittsburgh Cmdr. Wyman Briggs for his service to the port and work on the Area Maritime Security Subcommittee. Cmdr. Briggs is being reassigned to Boston for incident management handling search and rescue and major contingencies for Boston and New York.
Cmdr. Steven Wischmann will take over for Briggs on June 20. Wischmann had been the deputy chief of staff for the director of operations at the office of infrastructure protection in Washington, D.C.