The Fort McHEnry limited access channel has opened on May 15 for commercial vessel traffic to an available depth of 45 feet, seven weeks after the Francis Key Bridge was struck by the 'Dali'. The Fort McHenry Limited Access Channel will be open daily from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. The channel has a 350-foot horizontal clearance and a vertical clearance of 214 feet because of BGE powerlines. The available depth may increase based on future survey analysis operations as salvage operations continued. Deep draft vessels will require a Maryland POilot and a two tug escprt. All transits must be at the slowest safe speed but not to exceed five knots until the 'Dali' has been removed, then 10 knots will be possible. The three other temporary channels currently in use, 20, 14 and 11 foot deep, remained ipen and should be uitilized by vessels that do not requier the deeper channel.
News
DIONISIOS SOLOMOS
On May 14, 2024, at noon, the Port Authority of Ios was informed by teachers of the High School of Thira who were making a day trip from Thira to Ios, about an incident with six students suffering injuries on board the 'Dionisios Solomos'. The ship was on a scheduled route from Thira. The injuries were caused by a fall on the escalators while the ship docked in the port of Ios. A 14-year-old boy was taken to the Ios Health Center for first aid, from where he was discharged the same day. The students, after the end of their excursion to Ios, boarded another ship bound for Thera. A preliminary investigation was carried out by the Port Authority of Ios.
Houston
Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE: KMI) announced a series of projects, totaling over $170 million of capital investment, that will increase efficiency, add product liquidity, and enhance blending capabilities at its Pasadena and Galena Park terminals, part of its best-in-class refined products storage hub on the Houston Ship Channel. In response to growing customer demand, KMI’s liquids terminal platform now boasts 10 ship docks, 38 barge spots, 20 inbound pipelines providing connectivity to 10 regional refineries and chemical plants, 15 outbound pipelines, 14 cross-channel lines, and approximately 43 million barrels of storage on the Houston Ship Channel, North America’s leading port for energy exports.
Takoradi
Expansion works on the Takoradi Port have started with the construction of a multipurpose on-dock Atlantic Container Terminal. The project will see the port basin being dredged to create a 16-metre depth and land reclamation for the building of five new berths to hold bigger capacity vessels. A visit to the Takoradi Port in the Western Region revealed that the contractors were casting the foundation stones for the quay wall to herald the expansion project at the port. The project, being developed by Ibistek Ghana Limited at a cost of $475 million, marks the first time a wholly owned Ghanaian firm has been engaged in port development in the country. The Atlantic terminal, which will be the major development in the history of the Takoradi port when completed, will have a cargo holding space of one million twenty-footer equivalent units (TEUs), an upscale from the average container traffic of about 55,000 TEUs a year.
LEON THEVENIN
The 'Léon Thévenin' departed Cape Town Harbour on May 14, 2024, at 3.45 p.m. UTC for the site of the faults on the Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy) and Seacom cables, which occurred on May 12. The faults were reported on the EASSy and Seacom cables off the East Coast of Africa, knocking out all subsea capacity between East Africa and South Africa. The cable faults were impacting Internet connectivity to Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania. Traffic drops of between 30% and 75% in impacted countries were observed. Following these cable faults, South African users complained about poor Netflix performance and issues connecting to other online services. However, the East coast submarine cables may have only been part of the problem. Several terrestrial cable failures also occurred, reducing capacity between Johannesburg and Cape Town. The vessel was expected to arrive at the cable grounds on May 18 at around 05:00 a.m. The 'Léon Thévenin' is equipped with various cable work tools such as grapnels, buoys, ropes, and dead weights and a ROV that can be used to detect, cut, recover, join, and test undersea fibre cables. The vessel had docked in Cape Town Harbour on April 25 after returning from Abidjan, where it had attended to a fault on the SAT-3 cable.
NORTH AMERICAN
On the morning of May 14, 2024, the 'North American' sank at a pier on the Lake Washington Ship Canal in Seattle. Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound received a call at 07.30 a.m. after the crabber had partially sunk on the south side of the canal, east of the Ballard Bridge, with only the stern still protruding from the water.Responders from the Seattle Fire installed an oil containment boom around the vessel to prevent pollution, and a dive team started working on plugging vents and reducing the risk of fuel discharges. A second layer of boom has been deployed to further reduce the chance of a fuel slick escaping from the vessel, which can carry up to a maximum of 32,500 gallons of diesel, The actual amount aboard at the time of the sinking may be lower. The Global Diving and Salvage was the pollution response contractor for the incident, and its team will be removing the remaining petroleum on board and transferring it to storage tanks on shore. The Coast Guard is monitoring the progress of the response, and an investigation into the cause of the sinking is under way. Reports with photos: https://www.news.uscg.mil/Press-Releases/Article/3775064/coast-guard-other-agencies-respond-to-sunken-vessel-in-seattle/ https://maritime-executive.com/article/pioneering-crab-boat-f-v-north-american-sinks-at-the-pier
Hamburg
Germany’s largest universal port remains on a growth course, achieving a distinct 4.1 percent advance to 69.4 million tons in seaborne cargo handling in the first half of 2019. Especially good growth trend in the general cargo segment, up 6.1 percent at 48.4 million tons, was the main contributor to the excellent figures for total and container handling. The total for bulk cargo handling was just 0.3 percent lower than for last year’s first half at 21.0 million tons. Germany’s largest universal port remains on a growth course, achieving a distinct 4.1 percent advance to 69.4 million tons in seaborne cargo handling in the first half of 2019. Especially good growth trend in the general cargo segment, up 6.1 percent at 48.4 million tons, was the main contributor to the excellent figures for total and container handling. The total for bulk cargo handling was just 0.3 percent lower than for last year’s first half at 21.0 million tons.
Sabetta
Icebreaker assistance and ice restrictions for ships entering the basin of Section No.1 at the Port of Sabetta, Yamal and access channel are canceled as of 00:00 Moscow time, August 6. The corresponding order was signed by the Port Harbourmaster Nikolay Nesterov. The order says that there is a possibility of separately floating ice floes, therefore masters of ships sailing in this water area of the Port of Sabetta and on approaches to the port are advised to exercise caution. Arctic Port of Sabetta is built on the western shore of the Gulf of Ob (Kara Sea) for transshipment of hydrocarbons from the South-Tambey gas condensate field on the Yamal peninsula to the Western Europe, South America and APR countries under Yamal LNG project. The project envisages the construction of an LNG plant capable of producing 16.5 million metric tonnes of LNG and 1.35 million tonnes of gas condensate annually
ABEILLE NORMANDIE
On the night of May 14, the CROSS Gris-Nez regional was informed that a migrant boat had set sail in the Malo-les-Bains sector. At the end of the night, in conjunction with the CROSS Gris Nez, the Dunkirk semaphore relocated the boat and indicated that it had stopped. At the same time, the CROSS deployed the 'Abeille Normandie' to the site. The crew of the 'Abeille Normandie' joined the boat near the beach of Malo-les-Bains, noticed that there were 19 people on board and that they requested assistance. The semi-rigid then towed the boat to the beach of Malo-les-Bains where the 19 people were taken care of by shore based emergency services and the police.
Monfalcone
ENCHANTED PRINCESS, the fifth in a line of six Royal Class ships built for Princess Cruises, was floated out on 6 August at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Monfalcone.
Immingham
On August 1, ABP announced new customers for the Port of Immingham this week: The port welcomed the first vessel in a new contract with customers Top Blue and The Fuel Trading Company. The new deal is expected to bring an extra 30,000 tonnes per year through the Port of Immingham – the largest Port by tonnage in the UK. The cargo being delivered is Prilled Urea which is a key part of the mixture for the AdBlue market.