Page 33: of Marine News Magazine (February 2015)

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INLAND TOWBOAT DESIGN “Gas itself is very abundant along the inland waterway system which should help keep the transportation costs to a minimum.

Assuming gas continues to be adopted by other industries along the rivers (which we expect it to), the inland marine sector should be able to capitalize on this expansion.” – Greg Beers, President / Principal Naval Architect at

Bristol Harbor Group gines and their LNG storage and delivery system have been and containment systems. “Conrad has worked with a se- proven (or are being proven) domestically by Harvey Gulf ries of piping, valve, and tank manufacturing companies in and in numerous cases internationally. Our towboat em- this space over the past couple years in anticipation of this ploys the same basic system architecture, which has been product category further developing. These vendors/part- accepted by U.S. regulators. By combining these two prov- ners have experience in design/development and installa- en technologies, we are able to remove the design risk.” tion of their products and have been instrumental in assist-

Ed Shearer, TSGI’s Principal Naval Architect, adds, “With ing us with our vetting of this product. Since 2009, Conrad

Approval in Principle in hand, we know that the basic de- has delivered almost 40 gas carrying Type C tank barges. To sign is acceptable to ABS. Further, we know that ABS and extend our knowledge into the double walled requirements

USCG work hand in hand on many of these projects, and of the LNG space will be a challenge, but one we feel is thus we infer that the major design issues are also acceptable right in line with who we are, based on our experience.” to USCG. That said: the next step is to submit class draw- Bristol Harbor Group and The Shearer Group together ings to ABS and USCG for review and approval. We expect bring varied experiences that combined to enhance the proj- that USCG will limit their review to the LNG storage and ect. In this case, TSGI was the principal designer of the sub- supply systems, as well as