A stretch of the Ohio River near Pittsburgh remained closed to maritime traffic on Monday as crews equipped with sonar looked for a barge believed to have sunk over the weekend — one of more than two dozen barges that broke loose and floated down the rain-swollen river.
The Coast Guard launched an investigation into how 26 river barges got loose from their moorings late Friday, striking a bridge and smashing a pair of marinas. All but three of the barges were loaded with coal, fertilizer, and other dry cargo.
No injuries were reported and no hazardous materials spilled into the river, according to Pittsburgh police and Coast Guard officials, but the river was expected to remain off limits to mariners while the barges’ owner formulated a plan to salvage its runaway vessels.
Coast Guard investigators were looking at high water as a possible cause or factor, said Commander Justin Jolley of the Coast Guard marine safety unit in Pittsburgh. The area had been hit by flooding after heavy rains Thursday.
High water can pose a risk for tied barges, which occasionally break loose on the Ohio, said Alan Nogy, operations project manager of locks and dams at the Army Corps of Engineers’ Pittsburgh District.
“That current can pull on them and that would be the biggest hazard, the power of the water could cause a situation like we have here now. We were on back-to-back high water events, so that doesn’t give industry a lot of time to shore things up if they thought they had to because we never really had a break,” he said.
Nogy spoke by phone from the Emsworth Locks and Dam, where seven barges were still stuck. Another barge was pinned against the Dashields Locks and Dam, several miles downstream
One barge remained unaccounted for on Monday and was believed to be submerged.
“We’re optimistic we’ll be able to locate where that barge is today or tomorrow and then we can mark it accordingly and restore navigation,” Jolley, of the Coast Guard, said Monday.