In Fast-Moving World, Slow-Going Barges Ply US Waterways
Barges haul about 5 percent of the nation’s bulk tonnage
February 17, 2012
A small, but mighty, tugboat pushes a barge loaded with coal up the Ohio River, past downtown Louisville, Kentucky.
These days, words like “speed,” “flexibility,” and “high-tech” describe the American culture - and a lot of the nation’s business operations.
But not one that’s based on the nation’s inland rivers.
The companies that control the 21,000 barges that towboats and tugboats push and pull along big rivers such as the Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee in America’s midsection have none of those attributes.
Barges move ever so slowly - about 9.5 kilometers [6 miles] an hour. There’s not much flexibility in what they do: the rivers are where they are, and strings of 60-meter [195-foot]-long barges get to their destination in their own sweet time.
This is one of four massive barges that broke away from their towboat on the Ohio River last April. One sank.
Or late, due to floods, low water, or problems that arise in the old and creaky locks along the big rivers.
There’s a lot of waiting and patience involved in the barge business, in other words.
About the only high-tech features involve safety onboard and coordination of delivery of coal, chemicals, and grain from their source to river ports for loading.
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25