The backers are dedicated and unwavering in their task
Despite widespread industry dissatisfaction with federal efforts to support the inland shipping network, some hardy souls out there are continuing to fight the good fight and stand up for river commerce.
As mentioned in this blog a few weeks ago, one of them is Dave Reidt of Argosy Boat in Louisiana. He holds pretty strong views about the politicians of all stripes in Congress, along with their functionaries. Descriptions such as "jackasses" form part of his opinion about policy makers.
In a long chat with him, he made the excellent point that without river barges a loaf of bread would now cost $55 – the cost of sending all that wheat from the mid-West to the rest of the country overland. Mr. Reidt contends that far too many people are ignorant about the technological and logistics strides in the industry over the past 100 years.
"What worked then does not necessarily work today."
Argosy has linked up with Paul Pollinger for a container-on-barge hull. The project, which is looking for funding, centers on a Mod1 hull patented some years ago by Mr. Pollinger for a dual purpose river and open water barge.
"My design enables the barge to be used on the inland waterways and in regions such as the Gulf of Mexico without the need for offloading and onloading by truck," he tells me. The vessel will take up the same surface area in locks as the conventional 15 barge system, but has reinforced trusses at crucial points such as the bow so that it can traverse open water with no problem.
"It really comes into its own with cargo that needs to go from, say, Pittsburg to Kingston, Jamaica. The market I'm looking at is the 40 foot and 53 foot container traffic – not really the 20 footers." He is well aware of the breakeven mileage for barge and truck – barges are cheaper when the journey is a minimum of 450 or 750 miles, depending on who is talking and what cost factors they take into account.
The tugs it would need are those now in use.
Mr. Pollinger is also very interested in the Port of Memphis, where he reckons the draft is deeper than generally thought because of deepening a couple of decades ago to cater for Sealand vessels when the line was in its heyday.