BETWEEN A DAM AND A HARD SPOT

Abstract

ABSTRACT As a result of the most severe winter in history, the locks at Markland Locks and Dam on the Ohio River, 60 miles south of Cincinnati, were closed to traffic by heavy ice accumulation January 25, 1978. Up river, 13 towboats and 125 barges with cargoes ranging from xylene to steel waited. Yet further up the river, an undetected ice gorge was building, trapping the tows between the inoperative locks and the gorge. On January 27, 1978, the gorge broke and swept down on the entrapped tows. Some towboats could just hold their position, while others, and many barges, were carried away toward the dam with the result that one towboat and seven barges sank at the dam, three barges were swept over the dam, six barges were unaccounted for, and 11 barges lodged against the dam producing a major pollution and explosion potential from the non-gas-free tank barges. To complicate matters, the river was at flood stage and bank-to-bank ice was forming behind the stranded barges, eventually extending six miles up river. We had to determine the cargoes and location of 125 barges in order to establish the safety measures needed during salvage operations. Salvage operations and channel ice breaking continued until February 5, 1978. On the night of February 5, 1978, two tows locked through, but the third, a 108-foot-wide, 1,000-foot-long gasoline tow became wedged solid in the lock chamber with the forward gate open. Three days were required to free the tow, but both lead barges were damaged and lost 1,084 gallons of gasoline in the lock chamber. A large number of Coast Guard personnel and a variety of equipment was deployed from five Coast Guard districts.