Times-Picayune 1 February 1997 Page B-8Safety concerns prompted by the December crash of the freighter Bright field into the Riverwalk will be the focus of a special meeting of the Port of New Orleans' Board of Commissioners on Thursday.
The meeting will be at 4 p.m. in the board's administrative offices, 1350 Port of New Orleans Place. Vehicular access to the riverfront office is via Euterpe Street from Tchoupitoulas Street.
The meeting will concentrate on emergency response mechanisms in riverfront properties. The board's public safety consultant, John Granito, will assess projects under way to improve the landside alert and response systems.
"This meeting will provide a forum for the consolidation of assessments and recommendations related to safety conditions on and along the Mississippi River," Board President J. Ron Brinson said.
Times-Picayune 7 February 1997 Pages C-1 and C-3 by Mary JudiceBetter warning systems should be installed in areas along the Mississippi River where people gather outside, a safety consultant told the New Orleans Dock Board on Thursday.
Loudspeakers should be placed along the Moonwalk and in Woldenberg Park to alert visitors to imminent danger along the river, John Granito said in his assessment of the response on land to the Dec. 14 Bright Field crash in the Riverwalk.
Granito interviewed 45 people and reviewed videotape of the evacuation after the accident, in which a 735-foot freighter heading downriver lost control and veered into a New Orleans wharf and shopping center.
A retired university administrator who for years has conducted safety studies for the port, Granito said the proposed warning devices should be connected to the land-based radio system now being installed.
The safety consultant also recommended that all employees at land-based facilities such as the RIverwalk and Aquarium, be trained in evacuation procedures as part of formal orientation programs. He said maintenance workers at the Riverwalk cooperated with the eight security officers on duty and Harbor Police to evacuate the 7,000 people within 250 yards of the collision.
About 75 people were injured fleeing the Riverwalk. Others were injured evacuating the nearby Flamingo casino, which was not hit.
Granito said there was pushing and shoving during the evacuation efforts but nothing that resembled a chaotic situation. Confusion resulted because shoppers were trying to enter the Riverwalk mall as others fled.
"People were well-trained in cooperating and there were more than sufficient resources," he said.
Granito said one weak point was a lack of access to the collapsed building. Emergency teams and equipment were blocked by the collapsed wharf at the edge of the river. Teams had to work from the Poydras Street entrance to the wharf area but could not get to the disaster area from the Julia Street entrance.
Some of his recommendations are already being implemented. Video cameras have been installed in the Riverwalk and the Hilton Hotel to monitor river activity, and interior radio-based alarm systems are being installed a the Aquarium, Hilton and Riverwalk. The systems are connected to the Coast Guard traffic control center at the Gov. Nicholls Street wharf.
He called for updated evacuation plans for all waterfront facilities and an integrated response plan to disasters by the Port of New Orleans to include cruise ships.
He said a project to widen the wharf would provide an excellent buffer zone for buildings built out over the river. J. Ron Brinson, port president, said he would encourage an expansion of the wharf but it would be a costly project.
Other safety changes are being considered for the vessels which ply the river.
Capt. Gordon Marsh, commander of the Coast Guard Marine Safety Office in New Orleans, said regulations regarding anchor handling and how many crew members are needed would be reviewed.
Also the Coast Guard and national Transportation Safety Board will look at requirements for language proficiency required for those on navigational watch. The crew of the Bright Field was Chinese and some members had limited use of English.
A nice photo of Granito accompanied the article.
Times-Picayune 7 February 1997 Pages A-1 and A-3 by John HallA local ship repair yard has tilted the Bright Field's mammoth front hull out of the water, revealing the extensive damage caused when the 90,000-ton grain freighter slammed into a New Orleans wharf and Riverwalk mall Dec. 14.
While destruction to the shopping center and Hilton Hotel are plain to see, the enormous hole ripped open on the ship has been hidden almost entirely below the waterline.
Now the damaged area - 85 feet long and 3 stories high - is fully exposed at a berth 10 miles downriver at Violet, where two shifts of workers are busy fixing the vessel.
Fifty workers are replacing 224,000 pounds of steel turned into scrap by the force of the collision's glancing blow. The ship also lost the port anchor and 300 feet of chain.
The Bright Field was kept a the crash site until it could be moved Jan. 6. To raise the front end of the ship, Boland filled ballast tanks at the rear until most of the bow emerged from the water.
The freighter tore across 375 feet of the wharf's front and sliced 22 feet into an open wharf surface and 23 feet more into the Riverwalk.
A feature of the wharf's substructure kept damage to the mall from being much worse, said President J. Ron Brinson of the Port of New Orleans.
Huge slabs of concrete and steel supported by wood pilings extend down as much as 85 feet. Above these slabs, steel pilings support the wharf deck.
The slabs are 2 1/2 feet thick, with 8-foot-wide industrial size tongues that project 100 feet at right angles from the bank.
That disastrous day, they were 12 1/2 foot underwater, an unusually high river.
"So the ship hit almost a sheer wall of concrete," Brinson said. Lessons from the impact will be valuable in designing better protection for the wharves, he said.
Pointing at the Bright Field's gaping hole Thursday, Boiler-maker Superintendent J.W. Ervin said 80 to 90 tons of mud, concrete, wood, and bricks have been cleaned out of the ship's bottom by U.S. Maritime Service of Meraus, a ship-cleaning company.
"Up at the top, we had a big concrete pillar sticking out, 24 inches by 24 inches by 18 feet long," Ervin said.
Without a dry dock, Boland's workers are replacing steel to within a few feet of the bottom at the very front of the ship, President Joseph Ruppel said.
"Water depth is the key, and it's 55 to 60 feet deep here," Ruppel said.
The ship normally draws 39 feet fully loaded, but now it looks quite odd, drawing 52 feet at the stern.
Ballast water was pumped out of forward tanks, and the stern tanks were filled.
Thousands of tons of corn from the No. 1 hold were removed.
"They took off eight 40-foot containers of corn," foreman Charlie Kerns said. "They sucked it out like a vacuum cleaner."
Most of the corn and the Chinese crew are still aboard. The crew's in better shape than the corn, a lot of which got wet, Ervin said. The crew has treated Boland's workers wonderfully, he said.
"It's been like a Chinese restaurant. They fix you a steak, they'll fix you anything you want."
The article included two photos of the work in progress. A great one in color and a B&W of the removal of debris.
Times-Picayune 20 February 1997 Pages B-1 and B-2 by Steve CannizaroThe Bright Field din't have much luck on it Dec. 14 trip through New Orleans, when it tore up the Riverwalk shopping mall, and its luck hasn't improved much now that it's docked in Violet for repairs.
The 735-foot freighter caught fire late Tuesday night. The blaze may have been sparked by one of the repair workers, officials said.
One St. Bernard Parish fire-fighter, Michael Binder, suffered a shoulder injury while battling the 11:50 p.m. blaze in a storage area of the ship known as the rope room or bosun's locker. The area, which holds various items including hyfdraulic fluids and ropes is one deck below the main deck on the ship's bow.
Binder was treated and released at Chalmette Medical Centers.
"It's pretty extensive damage" to part of the freighter, St. Bernard Fire Chief Thomas Stone said. Aobout 40 St. Bernard Parish firefighters abattled the fire for more than two hours, extinguishing it about 2:30 a.m. No dollar estimate of the damage was available Wednesday.
Firefighters, who had trouble communicating with the ship's Chinese crew, said the encountered some reluctance among crew members to cooperate with them, Stone said.
No injuries were reported among the crew or the workers from Boland Marine & Manufacturing Co., who were making repairs below the deck that caught fire, the fire chief said.
Stone said the cause of the blaze is under investigation.
"We believe it was accidental," Stone said. He said welding sparks may have ignited the fire or a repair worker might have been smoking in the room and touched off the blaze.
Since Jan. 6 the vessel has been undergoing an estimated $2 million in repairs while housed at a berth in Violet, about 15 miles downriver from New Orleans.
It's too early to tell if the fire will delay those repairs, a Boland official said. Repairs were scheduled to be completed in the next several weeks, Stone said.
Getting to the area on fire was 'like going down a chimney to fight a fire," Stone said. "All the heat and smoke were coming up as they were going down."
The Coast Guard said no pollution resulted from the fire. Firefighting ships from New Orleans and Plaquemines Parish were dispatched but weren't needed, Stone said.
The article included a B&W photo of St. Bernard Parish Fire Chief Tommy Stone and Capt. Gordon Marsh, commanding officer of the Coast Guard Marine Safety Office.
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