Stevens Towing chartered in barges and purchased another tugboat in Q4 2023 to meet the rising demand for services in the US
Its fleet of tugs and barges worked on marine construction projects and supported terminals, lightering operations, heavy lifts, port activities and dredge tows in the last quarter of 2023.
“Throughout the divisions, Q4 has been a productive end to 2023,” Stevens Towing said in a newsletter.
“Our tug and barge fleet have been extremely busy. We have chartered several additional barges and brought on an additional tug to cover our obligations supporting Nucor Steel’s ship lightering operations, several spot market project cargo moves and numerous dredge tows.”
Its floating cranes, Ocean Ranger, Manitowoc 4100 ringer and Clyde 32, were busy with shipyard support operations and heavy lifts in the Port of Charleston, handling turbines, rotors, coal boxes, tanks and generators.
A major project involved moving 20,000 tonnes of rock to Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, for road refurbishment for J H Hiers Construction and Beaufort County.
Stevens Towing mobilised J H Hiers equipment to the island and rock from Nova Scotia, Canada was shipped to Kinder Morgan’s facility on Shipyard Creek. Stevens Towing used four super-jumbo hopper barges to lighter the material from Charleston down to Daufuskie.
A discharge dock was built, with three spud barges and a ramp to the shore for its Komatsu PC-1250 to unload the barges directly to their dump trucks.
“Two weeks after all of the rock was unloaded on the island, we mobilised a barge to Daufuskie to pick up the remaining J H Hiers equipment used on the island to perform the final touches,” Stevens Towing said.
Another project used barges and tugs to build a reef 32 km offshore for Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources.
Stevens Shipyard prepped ABS-classed deck barge Stevens 2501 for loading by installing rail around the perimeter of the barge. This barge was transported to East Coast Terminal in Savannah, Georgia where the reef material was loaded.
“Over a day and a half, we loaded two retired Marta rail cars, 1,200 tonnes of concrete pipe culvert and other miscellaneous items to the barge,” said Stevens Towing.
“Once everything was loaded and secured, we waited for a calm weather window to make the 32 km trip offshore to deploy the reef material at a designated location provided by Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources.”
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