Volunteers from New Hope Eagle Fire Co. were at the center of a daring emergency mission that prevented a 40-ton construction barge from crashing into the non-toll New Hope-Lambertville Bridge as swift-moving waters rose rapidly toward flood stage Friday morning.

A barge captain and his assistant were also key players in the effort that resulted in the construction craft being steered between the piers of the bridge and ultimately secured safely on the New Hope shore.
"The alertness and decisive actions of New Hope Fire Chief Craig Forbes and his team of volunteers helped to avert both injuries and damage at our bridge this morning," said Frank G. McCartney, executive director of the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, in a statement. "They were instrumental in bringing about a good outcome to what could have been a tragic event."

The barge went adrift shortly after 7 a.m. from its location on the Delaware River at what is commonly called the "Route 202" toll bridge, which connects Solebury and Delaware Township, N.J.
The barge - a flat platform that had a lifter and small crane on it - was being kept on the water to support a bridge commission project to repair the Route 202 bridge, which is upstream from the non-toll New Hope-Lambertville bridge.

Thursday night's torrential rains triggered a rapid rise in the river level, which caused the barge's anchoring mechanisms - dubbed "spuds" - to be lifted from the river bottom. The craft began drifting downstream.
"It was scraping along the bottom. Not as quick as the river, but it was drifting," said Joe Donnelly, a spokesman for the bridge commission.

Forbes alerted the commission about the unmoored vessel, and he firefighter Keith McMillan used a river fan boat to race the barge captain and his assistant to the adrift vessel, said Donnelly.
The captain and his colleague maneuvered the barge to a shallower section of the river and temporarily stabilized it. But the powerful currents again lifted the "spuds" loose. Once more the barge was adrift - and heading toward the New Hope-Lambertville Bridge.

But the barge captain and New Hope fire personnel used the spuds like "feet moving up and down on the river bottom + to navigate beneath the bridge" without striking the piers that support the structure, according to the commission.

The barge was stabilized about 200 to 250 yards south of the non-toll bridge. For about five hours after, Forbes and Fire Marshal Daryl Jurbala worked with a towing company to get the barge towed to shore, where it was moored on the New Hope side near the Bucks County Playhouse by about 1:45 p.m.

Fan boats from the fire company and the New Hope Ambulance and Rescue Squad backed up the operation, which involved a 35-ton tow truck using steel cables to bring the barge landside. Donnelly said the river continued to rise, sending large tree trunks downstream that the fan boats had to navigate around.

The New Hope-Lambertville Bridge was closed for about two hours, from shortly after the drifting barge was discovered until about 9:40 a.m. Donnelly said a team of engineers checked the bridge to ensure it had sustained no damage.

"The commission is grateful for all of the effort that was made to address the drifting-barge situation in a safe and ultimately successful manner+" said McCartney.
The barge was being used in the commission's project to repair and rehabilitate substructures on the Route 202 bridge. The work also includes so-called scour remediation, or placing rocks around bridge pier abutments and replacing aprons that were washed away.

Christopher Ruvo can be reached at 215-345-3147 or cruvo@phillyburbs.com

The Bucks County Herald
October 7, 2010