Mike James/The Independent
South Point — A company whose very existence is based on marine traffic is moving its operations further away from the water.
Not much further — just enough to fulfill a new mission to incorporate environmentally sound practices into its barge repair business.
McGinnis Inc. is well-known on this stretch of the Ohio River. Its towboats chug up and down, coaxing barges into its repair facilities.
Those facilities have been on the river shore, of course — moving a steel barge that’s as long as a football field cross-country is a practical impossibility.
The company’s new shipyard near South Point can almost do that, however. It has massive lifters that pull the barges from the river, where they are placed on dollies that roll on rails through dirigible-hangar-sized buildings where they are cleaned, repaired and painted.
Equipment, machinery and systems in the buildings are designed to contain pollutants, conserve materials and recycle energy.
McGinnis has invested $35 million into the project, said project manager Rob Lynch.
Using the facility makes business sense for barge owners because quick turnaround times make it possible for them to get the barges rehabbed while waiting to load — taking advantage of downtime.
When the barges ease up to the removal point, giant cradles go underneath and lift them out. Then they go onto equally large dollies on rails pulled by cables.
At a rate of 16 inches per minute, they crawl through a building seemingly big enough to fly a helicopter in, where automatic blasters remove rust. The barges move down the line to the paint room where they are sprayed with a special paint formulation. Currently the painting is done manually but automatic machinery is planned.
The blasting and painting processes are designed for maximum energy savings and minimum pollution.
The painting system uses two components that are blended under high heat when they get to the spray gun, said Roy Potter, who supervises the process. The heat makes the paint flow more easily so it minimizes the amount of material used, and it completely eliminates emission of volatile organic compounds, Potter said.
The abrasive used to blast the rust is recovered; much of it is reused and the rest is captured in drums.
Sophisticated recovery systems capture heat used in the process and reuse it.
The push to use environmentally sound practices is driven by industry demand, Lynch said. Fleet owners are being held to a higher standard so they seek out services like the one McGinnis offers.
McGinnis is looking ahead at a future where such processes are the norm. Environmental Protection Agency rules are moving that way, and McGinnis wants to be prepared, according to company president Rick Griffith. “We’re as green as they come.”
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2652.
