Hall-Buck Yard Gets New Name, Adds Drydock

A special double ceremony was recently held at what was formerly called the Port Allen River Plant in Baton Rouge, La., commemorating the renaming of the facility and the christening of its new floating drydock.

Renamed the HBM River Plant, Inc., to more closely identify with its parent company, Hall-Buck Marine, Inc., the facility christened a new 2,300-ton drydock built by Maxon Marine in Tell City, Ind. The christening of the 200-foot-long by 74- foot-wide drydock was performed by Mrs. Barbara Hall, wife of Harlan O. Hall, president of Hall-Buck Marine, Inc. This dock has 65 feet between wingwall s and a 7-foot deep hull, and 17-foot-high wingwalls.

The blocks are movable and can be positioned transversely or for either a four-foot or three-foot elevation over the inner bottom for docking barges or boats. A barge can be lifted in approximately 20 minutes.

The addition of this drydock, coupled with the existing 800-ton drydock and other extensive repair facilities, will allow HBM River Plant to perform major repairs to barges and boats.

"Before we were strictly topside repair," said Don Duff, Hall-Buck Marine's senior vice president, marketing and engineering. "Now, the new drydock will enable us to compete for large repairs, like bottom replating and cropping. We'll also be looking at vapor recovery system refits." With the new drydock, Hall-Buck Marine, Inc., has invested over $3 million in capital expenditures at the River Plant in the five years since it purchased the facility from Midland Enterprises.

For free literature detailing the repair capabilities of HBM River Plant, Circle 143 on Reader Service Card

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