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Runaway Purvis barge causes $100,000 damage

Sault-based Purvis Marine Ltd. has promised officials in Port Huron, Michigan it will help repair damages caused last month by a runaway company barge.
Reliance

Sault-based Purvis Marine Ltd. has promised officials in Port Huron, Michigan it will help repair damages caused last month by a runaway company barge.

Today's Port Huron Times-Herald reports that a 400-foot Purvis barge caused $100,000 in damage when it struck the decks of three riverside homes and scraped approximately 200 feet of concrete sidewalk above a sea wall.

The barge, identified by Boatnerd.com as Purvis's PML-9000, also hit a flap gate on an outflow pipe and a pair of spring pilings, the newspaper says.

The Reliance (shown above), a 151-foot tug owned by Purvis, was pushing the barge downbound under the Blue Water Bridges on December 17 when the towline broke.

The tug and barge continued later that day on their way to National Steel in Detroit, Boatnerd.com said.

The barge was loaded with steel coils and scrap.

Photos and technical links

Photo of runaway barge scraping the shoreline Purvis's PML-9000 barge (file photo from Boatnerd.com) PML-9000 under tow by Reliance (file photo from Boatnerd.com) Technical drawings and photos of the PML-9000 Photos and a technical drawing of the Reliance

Soo Warehouse sold

In other marine news, Great Lakes Transportation LLC has sold its Soo Warehouse in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigian.

Tonight's Soo Evening News discloses that the new buyer is MCM Properties LLC, a real estate holding arm of MCM Marine Inc.

The facility on East Portage Avenue was opened 100 years ago by Pittsburgh Steamship Co. as a ship chandlery.

MCM expects to take over the warehouse in early March.

It hopes to lease much of the warehouse and its supply vessel, the Ojibway, to an undisclosed third party.

To read the Soo Evening News coverage, please click here.


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David Helwig

About the Author: David Helwig

David Helwig's journalism career spans seven decades beginning in the 1960s. His work has been recognized with national and international awards.
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