U.S., Canadian coast guards free freighter stuck in ice on Detroit River
Amherstburg, ON –A freighter is once again making its way up the Detroit River after becoming temporarily stuck in the ice on Wednesday. The ship became stuck near the southern tip of Boblo Island, but the Canadian and U.S. coast guards were on hand to help free the ship and send it on its way at about 11 a.m.
The ship had been stuck overnight, waiting for the coast guard vessels to resume operations Thursday morning and free it. The incident also prevented three other vessels, which were behind the stuck ship, from moving along the river until the ship was freed.
“We’ve launched Operation Coal Shovel, which is a joint, bi-national operation with the Canadians and the Americans to ensure maritime commerce runs smoothly as the ice builds up,” said Ensign Adeeb Ahmad of the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Detroit. “Usually, we start this operation in mid-January … but due to the winter storm and the ice buildup, we started on Monday.”
“What we’re doing now is, we’re just monitoring the area and we’re ice breaking, and any ships that need our help getting free from the ice, we’re there to assist.”
Isabelle Pelchat, ice breaking superintendent for the Canadian Coast Guard’s Central Region, said the recent storm led to the quick formation of ice in the western basin of Lake Erie, and the Livingstone Channel of the Detroit River. “We’ve been assisting shipping for a few days now,” Pelchat said. “We’ve escorted, jointly with the U.S. Coast Guard … over 30 ships already.”
She said the recent winter storm is behind the treacherous conditions on the water. “It had an effect that we hadn’t seen before at this time of the year,” Pelchat said. “The combined cold weather and the show just created that ice formation, and it was spread very quickly.”
“In the Livingstone Channel, it went up to two feet, the ice, so that was something that is really unusual,” she said. “We’re expecting that the warm weather that is starting now, and will continue for the rest of the week, will ease conditions and make it much easier.”
Jeff Brown, who’s lived in the area for two years, said there’s been a “traffic jam” of ships on the Detroit River in recent days, with the coast guard helping several ships move along the river, through the ice. “The storm that came through just around Christmas there, I witnessed this lake freeze over within 24 hours,” he said. “Freeze over probably about 1,000 feet out, almost to the shipping channel.”
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Future of truck ferry uncertain once the Gordie Howe International Bridge opens
Windsor, ON – When the Gordie Howe International Bridge opens in 2025, it will allow trucks hauling hazardous materials, leaving a question mark around the Detroit-Windsor Truck Ferry. Currently, trucks carrying hazardous goods have to use the truck ferry when going between Windsor and Detroit.
While company president Gregg Ward is supportive of the bridge, he says since the bridge will handle the goods he now carries, the future of his ferry service is uncertain.
“We haven’t received anything in writing. We haven’t had any meetings with the government, municipal, Ontario or federally. The border is something you want to have as many options as possible,” said Ward.
Windsor West MP Brian Masse, who is also the NDP’s border critic, agrees the ferry service should be kept. Masse has written Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino asking that the ferry service be kept as a redundancy for security reasons.
“When we’ve had other disruptions at the border, the auto industry for just-in-time delivery, and other serviceable goods they’ve gone across the truck ferry when we’ve actually had that need,” said Masse. “It [the ferry service] also has a perfect record .. so I really believe that keeping it around for a couple of years after at least would be the wisest thing we can do,” he said.
Ward said once the ferry service is gone it will be nearly impossible to bring it back, so keeping it as a redundancy would keep the options open for the future. “So that should be a very thoughtful process to think, do we want to end or do we want to keep that redundancy in the system,” said Ward, who has been operating the service since 1990.
Ward would not say how many trucks the service handles per year for security reasons but did say it runs Monday through Friday carrying mostly flammable and corrosive goods. Ward said the service could still be used to carry over-sized goods such as wind turbine towers which it currently handles.
“How those get across if we’re not here I’m not sure,” said Ward, adding he would still need to carry some hazardous goods as well to make the operation viable.
Masse has also not given up on the possibility of using the dock located at the end of Maplewood Drive near Morterm Terminal for a passenger ferry service.
“Having someone who can navigate the channel like Gregg Ward is a blessing. It’s a learned skill so we don’t want to lose that capacity,” said Masse, adding that Detroit is investing heavily on trails and other amenities on the riverfront which could attract visitors.
“We don’t know what the future could be but the future without the ferry would be less chances of expanding our opportunities versus getting rid of it,” said Masse.
Read more and view images at this CBC News link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/
