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Barges hit UP bridge
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<p>Don't worry about it. That bridge is built like Mount Rushmore and has been drilled many times in the past. UP will check it out, to be sure, but it won't be a problem. I run that stretch of river (I'm the engineer on an 8,000 hp boat; two 16-710's) and have seen that bridge hit before; the barges sustain <u><em><strong>all</strong></em></u> the damage. In the case of the Sunset Ltd., that boat was <em>way</em> out of the navigation channel, not the case here. Years ago, I saw the remains of a bad hit on the Vicksburg, MS bridge. The barge had been beaten by the ones following it until it was formed <em>around</em> the bridge pier. They removed it by suspending three guys from the underside of the bridge to cut peices away with torches; at the end of the day a crane on a deck barge with an electromagnet fished the cut-away pieces out of the river. If memory serves (this was 1979), it took six weeks or so to completely remove the remains. No worries, mates!</p><p>Tommy Towboater </p><p>BTW, that can be a really treacherous spot in high water. One of the captains that I worked with years back had a similar hit; the USCG report simply stated at the end that, "In the end, sometimes Old Man River has his way." </p>
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