Barge dedication planned at ProvPort

THIS AERIAL photograph shows ProvPort, with Save The Bay located south of the property, and Johnson & Wales University Harbor Campus located to the southwest. A barge dedication ceremony will be held at the port Monday. / COURTESY PROVPORT
THIS AERIAL photograph shows ProvPort, with Save The Bay located south of the property, and Johnson & Wales University Harbor Campus located to the southwest. A barge dedication ceremony will be held at the port Monday. / COURTESY PROVPORT

PROVIDENCE – The dedication of a 300-foot-long and 72-foot-wide barge – the Sandy C – will be held Monday during a christening ceremony at ProvPort.
Named after Sandy Carlson, ProvPort’s longest serving board member until her death in 2013, the $7.4 million barge was funded through a federal TIGER Grant, also known as a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant.
Carlson served on the board for 19 years.
Constructed at the Conrad Shipyard in Morgan City, La., the barge arrived late last month. The Sandy C has a crane mounted on it that was also acquired though the Tiger Grant program.
According to information from ProvPort, the barge will allow ProvPort to maximize dock space for cargo, making the port more operationally efficient.
The ceremony will be held at 11:30 a.m. U.S. Sen. Jack F. Reed and Gov. Gina M. Raimondo will participate.
Reed’s office said ProvPort received a total of $10.5 million in TIGER grant funding, which supported the purchase of the barge and two high-performance cranes, as well as specialized equipment to allow the cranes to move a variety of cargo. The barge will be used as a platform for the cranes, which will help transfer cargo to and from vessels twice as fast as the old cranes.
Other dignitaries attending include Senate Majority Leader Dominick J. Ruggerio, Mayor Jorge O. Elorza, City Council President Louis Aponte and MARAD Maritime Administrator Paul N. Jaenichen Sr.
Before the ProvPort event, Reed and Jaenichen will tour Newport Shipyard, which recently received a $744,990 Small Shipyards Grant to make capital improvements to the facility and purchase a new 200-ton Marine Travelift.

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