CQ Princess at Markland Lock

A catastrophic failure of a miter gate at Markland Lock on the Ohio River while the 100' passenger vessle CQ Princess was in the chamber locking up river. The 100' by 1200' main chamber gate on the down-river side collapsed after what the captain and crew described as a "explosion" was heard. The chamber water level dropped suddenly anywhere from 4-6 feet in just seconds causing the lines holding the boat to the chamber wall to snap. Captain Paul Masterson and crew acted quickly to keep the vessel from smashing into the one remaining gate and partially submerged second gate.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Markland Lock
• Ohio River
• CQ Princess
• Captains Quarters

[kuigy2]

Quote: "causing the lines holding the boat to the chamber wall to snap"

Every lock I've ever been in has tie-offs that float with the water level.

If you tie off on the wall, you'll sink as the water rises.  If you left slack for the rise, how would you snap the slack lines?

Cool video though, thanks.

[amastky]

Of course the boat was tied to the floating tie-offs and are embedded in the "wall".

While I'm only reporting what the captain and crew reported to me; I'm certain that the force of the boat being pulled back towards the failed gate would likely be enough to snap the rope. Would you agree? And although I used the word "lines", we typically would only have one line on and have the boat, and that was all that snapped.

[phildeez1984]

good thing the upper gates didnt fail!

[doughesson]

Repairs are supposed to be completed in April 2010,per The Waterways Journal.

[dachief629]

BTW, I'm a chief engineer, with a master's ticket and 10+ years on the river.

[dachief629]

Even with an empty tow, you're not catching it. With a full tow, the stern of your boat is 80-90 feet from the gates. When the gate starts to fail, the chamber surges, and by the time the wheelhouse figures out what's happening and engages his mains, and the clutches ship up, the wreck is well and truly on. The VQ Princess' skipper was really good, and lucky as hell , to boot. Good onya, Skip.

[gman5237]

water drop and controlling the Princess. The fallen gate and the remaining one are being cleaned, inspected and repaired. New gates are scheduled to be installed in December, 2010.

I am a towboat Captain and have 30+ years of making Markland lock in all towboat positions and towboat sizes.

[gman5237]

It was well documented that the gates had severe cracking around the pivots and hinges. This was repaired in 1994 and found and repaired again in 1996. Had it been a towboat with a tow in the chamber at the time this occured, the outcome would have been very different. A towboat, unless he had an empty tow, would not have been able to shove hard enough to stop the tow from rushing out the lower gates with the water. The Captain of the Princess did a very good job of catching the sudden....

[gman5237]

therefore the upper fill valves could not have been open, they must close one set before the other set will operate. The boiling you see is visible any time the chamber is being filled, Markland is notorious for this. Any time you dump a large body of water quickly you will have waves as a result. The upper fill valves would have been open for a time until the lockman realized what was happening and then closed the valves, so the boiling action would have been even worse. Continued...

[gman5237]

Ok, lets clear up some things. There was no barge traffic in the small chamber, so that did not cause a wake or swell in the big chamber. The lock chambers do not and cannot drain into each other. During extreme low water conditions the lock does put into place restrictions whereby two northbound boats will not be locked in succession. They will wait until a southbound boat arrives in order to get maximum use of the water above the dam. The lower dump valves are left open while the lower ......

[doughesson]

Miter gates are called that because they fit like a miter joint on a wood picture frame.

Locks on the Ohio are 1200' l X 110' wide.Each "standard" rake barge is 195' l X35' w.15 barges + the boat will fill the chamber with 5-20' of length and 5' of width to spare.Though there is a wooden block ready for dropping into the chamber during man overboard,you'd get squished if it happened.

Locks are usually drained into one another when boats lock thru both directions to save water.