I went by Brazos Southeast moorings yesterday to see yet another tow standing by on the moorings with spill boom around it and all the muckity mucks running around like headless chickens assessing the damage.
Every time I make those locks my heart drops.
Most locks are relatively easy to make. These locks are not even really locks. They are antiquated flood gates.
The design sucks and the current and winds is always changing making each locking different from the last.
I would say the two locks, especially the Brazos, sustain damage at least once a week. Even more often than that in adverse wx conditions.
I have done my fair share of bumping and grinding but have been lucky so far. I still have to use a crow bar to unpinch my butt cheeks after I make them every time.
The flood gates are always being repaired because they can not even complete old repairs to damage before someone else crashes.
One thing I will say though is that with all the insurance claims that have been filed over the years for hundreds of thousands of dollars those gates probably could have been redesigned ten times over.
WTF?
Where is all that money going?
If you are reading this Army Corps why don’t you guys stop redirecting those settlement funds to DC and do something about it.
I know they are underfunded and are waterways infrastructure is deteriorating all over the US but these fuckers need to be at the top of the list.
Those gates have cost many a good pilot his job. You are only as good as your last bad performance on a towboat.
How’s that saying go about insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again. You get the point.
God save the West Canal towboaters.