Vessel Repair Puts New Drydock Into Service

摘要

Vessel Repair, a Port Arthur, Texas-based shipyard specializing in the new construction and repair of towboats and barges, has added a new 280-foot drydock and a two-barge transfer system to its operations. The shipyard is located along the Sabine Neches Ship Channel near where the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway crosses from Texas into Louisiana. The first job for the drydock, which has a lilting capacity of between 3,000 and 3,500 tons, was to dock and transfer to land a 30,000-barrel barge belonging to Golding Barge Line. Coincidentally, Golding was also the first customer to build a new towboat at Vessel Repair. The drydock was made possible, in part, by a $1.3 million Small Shipyard Grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration. West Gulf Shipyard in Galveston, Texas, built the drydock, which features some innovations to boost efficiencies, functionality, safety and longevity. The drydock has inclined stairways built into each wing wall rather than external vertical ladders, a feature that offers safety benefits while also improving the stability of the drydock.