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Skanska: Yes, We Are Securing Our Barges
October 28, 2020
Skanska said the company is securing their barges and other equipment in advance of Zeta.
The company released the following statement:
“As the Gulf Coast prepares for inclement weather, we are closely monitoring Hurricane Zeta’s path in conjunction with our partners with the goal of ensuring the safety of the community and our workers. Skanska is in the process of making necessary storm preparations, including securing barges and cranes, and mobilizing equipment into safe harbor.
“To date, we have recovered 18 of the 23 barges that ran aground as a results of Hurricane Sally, including all of those barges that impacted private property. Three barges that were under the Pensacola Bay Bridge have been retrieved with a fourth ballasted and anchored under the bridge. The remaining barges that have yet to be retrieved are being reinforced and secured in place in anticipation of possible storm impacts.”
Pictured: Skanska barges along Bayfront Parkway in downtown Pensacola, not far from the Pensacola Bay Bridge. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
9 Responses to “Skanska: Yes, We Are Securing Our Barges”
@Sandy—No you didn’t say anything about suing, but others have, & apparently plan on doing so. Yes weather is unpredictable, but forecasts are getting way more accurate than just a few years ago, with better radar & hurricane details from aircraft flying into them. Companies like Skanska depend on forecast weather conditions, & like nearly everyone else in the Pensacola area, were told an extremely slim chance of it hitting to the degree it did. It cost a lot of money & time to stop everything, on a very slim chance of things going bad, which as you say accurately, it unpredictably did. I think any other company under the very same circumstances would have made the same decision as Skanska did. I guess the old saying is true, you err on the side of caution.
Weather is not predictable, especially hurricanes, therefore everyone should prepare for a worst case scenario when it comes to hurricanes. I never said anything about suing anybody, I said they should have had insurance to cover issues like what happened in Sally.
@sandy—True, but suggest you read again the comment by Henry Coe. We were not in the target zone until the very last minute when things very & suddenly abruptly changed, & Skanska was not the only one caught totally off guard. Nearly everyone was. They gambled (& lost) going by the very best weather forecasters. They only knew of the change at the last minute as did everyone else, but then too late & dangerous to do anything, as Henry states. It costs a ton of time & money to secure things like that on a project of that size, not to mention being put way behind schedule. They went by the best advice of the forecasts. Maybe the forecasters should be sued instead?
Everyone living on the Gulf is aware that if a hurricane is coming and you live in the area where tropical storm force winds will affect you then you prepare for the storm. If you don’t know ask. The locals will tell you not to take anything for granted. Since Skansa was renting them I am sure they had to have insurance and they should be held responsible.
@Henry Coe—Great explanation. Many if not most, have no idea how the construction business really works. A very large amount of construction job equipment is actually rented or leased, & not actually owned. Those orange barrels you see on road projects for example, are usually rented & not owned. A close look at some of the heavy equipment used on projects, will often show the name of the rental or lease company on them. Often cheaper to rent or lease expensive specific equipment than to own something that they will have no use for on the next job.
They better secure those barges because the money hungry trial lawyers are always ready to eat.
Re:Denbroc, They are in the bridge building business, not the barge recovery business. It’s not cost effective to own barges that you can’t use. It’s not like they don’t want their barges back.
I’m not on the blame SKANSKA team. NW Florida wasn’t put under a hurricane warning until the 4pm advisory on Sept 14 which meant they would have had to get people in the water to work through the night in tropical storm conditions which would have been a logistical nightmare with big risk to life.
While NOAA and NHC and Emergency Management did the best they could to to predict the path of Sally, they also failed in putting out the right warnings in the right places.
It’s horrible what happened but people blaming SKANSKA are basically saying SKANSKA should have risked the lives of their employees because of late warnings. I don’t think so. SKANSKA as much a victim of Hurricane Sally as everyone else.
SKANSKA doesn’t have to recover the barges in order to repair the bridge. They are moving as fast as the FDOT lets them. FDOT should fine them $100000.00 a day for each barge that’s not recovered and see how fast they are recovered.
One other note: For the people suing them they should try and work with them and if they don’t pay what they think is a fair amount then file a lawsuit. You will recover faster if they deal with you instead of a lawyer. Your lawsuit could drag on for years in the court system.
SKANSKA: We will have the bridge reopened in six months.
Six weeks later
SKANSKA: We have yet to recover all of our barges from the last storm.