Here are a few pictures I took yesterday at the MS Welcome Center at the bridges of the partially sunken barge on I-20 pier span. In yesterday's paper, The Vicksburg Post, the removal of the barge will resume this coming Wednesday. It will involve cutting the barge with a crane mounted chisel. The waterway will close to vessel traffic once work begins and they anticipate no problems. It involves the Coast Guard, state transportation officials from Louisiana and Mississippi, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Highway Adm, Vicksburg Bridge Commission and Marquette Transportation, which owned the vessel pushing the 30-barge tow that struck the piers on both river bridges here. There have been four barge strikes along the Lower MS River since March 20, including two at Vicksburg and one a Natchez. The river crested at 43.3 feet. The barges that struck the bridges were carrying soybeans.
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April 6 is when the next salvage operation is planned.
The Coast Guard, the Louisiana and Mississippi transportation departments, the Federal Highway Administration, the Vicksburg Bridge Commission, Marquette Transportation, and the U. S. Army Corp of Engineers met Thursday to discuss plans to lift the soybean barge that partially sank March 23 after a towing vessel collided with the Bridge.
Salvage operations are set to begin April 6.
The Coast Guard says monitoring systems are in place on the I-20 bridge and one eastbound lane is closed to facilitate that. No bridge closures are expected during the salvage operation but restrictions have been put in place for marine traffic.
I am sure that it is difficult to keep control of a string of barges when the river has a mind of its own.
The pictures are wonderful!
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