|
From: Nawojczyk, Steve
Sent: Saturday, August 07, 2004 4:39 AM
Subject: Sub docks at quarry for repairs…By Jake Sandlin- Ark.
Democrat-Gazette
Sub docks at quarry for repairs
It moves from LR port to north shore as NLR prepares its home
BY JAKE SANDLIN ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
After making its way from Istanbul, Turkey to New Orleans, detouring to
Rosedale, Miss., and staying briefly at the Port of Little Rock, the
submarine USS Razorback gently settled in on North Little Rock’s river
shore about 1 p.m. Friday.
The World War II diesel submarine, with barges alongside and two
towboats nudging her from behind, glided up the Arkansas River from the
Port of Little Rock to near the abandoned Big Rock Quarry in less than two
hours, passing beneath Interstate 30 and other downtown bridges near
midday.
“She’s about to be home,” North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Hays called
out from the sub’s deck as the towboats guided the Razorback toward two
other barges waiting across from Little Rock’s Riverdale area.
The submarine with the state’s most recognizable name – though no
connection to the Arkansas Razorbacks – is to be preserved as a part of
museum on North Little Rock’s downtown riverbank.
It will make one more trip – on Aug. 29 – to the downtown riverfront
for a planned celebration to toast the final destination of history’s
longest-serving submarine. For now, the boat will stay tied to the two
barges off River Road between Riverview Park and Emerald Park, accessible
from the river and the nearby River Trail bikeway.
The barges and the submarine will be behind locked gates blocking ramps
onto the barges, and city police will have a presence in the area,
officials said.
“We’ll keep it secure,” said Steve Nawojczyk, the city’s museum project
manager. “People will be working on it most all the time, too.”
The submarine’s hatches will be locked to prevent access below deck
when workers aren’t present, Hays said. Other security measures won’t be
publicized.
“We’ll do what we need for nighttime security,” Hays said.
The Razorback was to have stayed until Aug. 29 at the moresecure Port
of Little Rock seven miles east of downtown, where the boat pulled in
Tuesday. After two days, however, Hays said access by boat onto the sub
offshore was too difficult for workers and their equipment, plus there was
a steady stream of sightseers at the port wanting a glimpse of the
311-foot-long steel piece of history.
“[Port officials] did not ask us to leave, but it became apparent we
needed to move her with the combination of things going on,” said Hays,
who announced the move Thursday evening.
Having the submarine at the port didn’t interfere with operations, said
Jack Long, general manager of Logistics Services Inc., which loads and
unloads barges, rail cars and trucks at the port.
“It really hasn’t been a real big problem,” Long said. “We had a lot of
people come out here, and that’s something we’re not really used to. We
tried to put a guy out there to direct [sightseers] to be in a safe place
to view the sub.
“There seems to be a lot of people excited about it. I think that’s
good. It is exciting.”
North Little Rock obtained the Razorback from Turkey for the proposed
$15 million Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum that Hays and many submarine
veterans began working toward more than two years ago. Turkey bought the
boat from the U.S. Navy in 1970, renamed it the Murat Reis and had it in
service for more than 30 years.
The two barges – the Mary Munns, named for the city’s longtime former
city clerk, and the Savannah Lou, after Hays’ granddaughter – will
eventually house a temporary maritime museum along the downtown
riverfront. The city has budgeted $100,000 to renovate the two barges.
Submarine veterans have volunteered for much of the work.
The submarine left Turkey on May 5 on what became a 93-day, 6,500-mile
adventure. The submarine stalled on the Mississippi River near Rosedale,
Miss., for two weeks while engineers figured how to get the submarine
safely up the more shallow Arkansas River.
Lifted between two barges last weekend, the Razorback arrived at the
Little Rock port Tuesday.
Submarine veterans, their tools and other equipment were already
upriver for work on the two barges.
“[The port location] presented a lot of problems,” said Jim Barnes,
commander of central Arkansas’ Razorback Submarine Veterans Base. “Now
we’ve got it here where we’ve got keys to the gates and all the necessary
things we need.”
This story was published Saturday, August 07, 2004
Copyright (c) 2004, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved.
This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission
of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
|
Yazıları posta kutunda oku