Page 3rd Cover: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 1994)

House Approves $ 1.35 Billion For

Maritime Reform

Money raised by increasing duty on ships visiting U.S. ports

The final piece of a comprehen- sive, bipartisan initiative authored by Rep. Gerry E. Studds(D-Mass.) to reform and revitalize the U.S. maritime industries was approved by a vote of 294 to 122 by the U.S.

House of Representatives. Passage of the bill — H.R. 4003, the Mari- time Administration and Promo- tional Reform Act — provides fund- ing offset required to enact the ship operating and ship building pro- grams agreed to by the House last

November to aid the U.S. maritime industries. "The House voted to ensure that

American flags continue to fly from vessels carrying this nation's com- merce. That American shipyards will someday soon build another commercial vessel," said Rep.

Studds, who is the chairman of the

House Merchant Marine and Fish- eries Committee.

The final version passed by the

House represented a compromise between the original proposal for $1.7 billion, from the Studds com- mittee, and a version for only $1 billion adopted by the Ways and

Means Committee.

The amendment would increase the existing duty from nine cents per ton (assessed on vessels calling from Western Hemisphere ports) and 27 cents per ton (vessels calling from other world ports) to a flat 38 cents per ton. The amendment also raises from five to 25 the number of times the duty can be assessed each year.

Of the U.S. maritime initiative,

Rep. Jack Fields, the ranking Mi- nority Member of the Committee, said, "If we do not act now to pass

H.R. 4003 to fund maritime reform, our own government will do what our wartime enemies have never been able to do — sink the U.S. merchant marine and remove the

American flag from the world's oceans."

Trinity Wins $120-Million

Contract For Two Vessels

President Clinton announces contract award;

Title XI financing plan helps secure order

A direct beneficiary of the Title

XI financing guarantees was Trin- ity Marine Group (TMG), a subsid- iary of Trinity Industries, Inc., which includes 15 shipyards.

The company has been selected to build two, 720-ft.(219.5-m) cata- maran RoRo barges for approxi- mately $ 120 million for Coastal Ship

Inc. of New York, N.Y.

It is the second largest single commercial contract in the history of TMG.

The barges, expected to take 30 months to build, will each have a capacity to carry up to 1,068, 48-ft. (14.6-m) over-the-road trailers.

The barges will be operated un- der charter by Allen Freight Trailer

Bridge Inc. between the mainland

U.S. and Puerto Rico. "We are doubly pleased to win this contract because it will provide work for many employees in four of our shipyards for 2.5 years, and we are happy because Trinity was se- lected in an intense competition..." said John Dane III, president of

TMG.

Both barges will have a 59-ft. (18- m) molded beam for each catama- ran hull. Overall beam of the entire barge with the two hulls joined to- gether will be 194.5 ft. (59.3-m).

Design draft will be 27 ft. (8.2 m) and each barge will displace 50,225 long tons.

Designed by C.R. Cushing & Co.,

Inc. of New York, they will have five level decks for accommodating 102, 220, 242, 252 and 252 trailers in 18 curbed lanes per deck, set on Pull- man type stands also built by a

Trinity division.

The barges are designed for unstaffed operations and have many features to achieve the maximum extended drydocking intervals per- mitted by regulatory bodies.

They will be built to the require- ments and recommendations of ABS for unrestricted ocean service and will be classed Maltese Cross, Circle

E, Maltese Cross AMS Deck Barge.

For more information on

Trinity Marine Group

Circle 48 on Reader Service Card • m few simple truths from Trimble: 1) We have no intention of getting into the refrigerator business. 2) No, we don't own the satellites. 3/ And, yes, we did just launch a few new products that are causing a bit of a ruckus. 48

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