Haiti: Relief logistics advance

Haiti: Relief logistics advance    The U.S. Maritime Administration on Wednesday said it will send a second high-speed ferry to Haiti, and Crowley Maritime said it will try delivering supplies “over the beach” in Port-au-Prince and outlines plans to set up a temporary dock using a deck barge.
   MarAd said it has started preparing the Alakai, the second of two high-speed ships built for Hawaii Superferry, to be used in relief efforts in Haiti. Its sister ship Huakai was activated for the relief effort earlier this week.
   'This ship will help our relief workers on the ground by allowing quick movements of people in and out of Haiti from various staging points,' said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood 'It is another example of why our country's merchant marine is so important.'

LaHood

   The ships were returned to MarAd last year after Hawaii’s Supreme Court ruled that a state law allowing the high-speed ferries to operate without a complete environmental impact statement was unconstitutional. Litigation and protests from environmentalists had prevented the Alakai from operating during much of its life after it arrived in Hawaii in August 2007. The Huakai, which was under construction, was never was put into operation.
   After Hawaii Superferry filed for bankruptcy in May 2009, the ships were returned to MarAd, which had lent $140 million under the Title XI load guarantee program. The cost of the ships had been estimated at $178 million. Since last summer the Huakai and Alakai have been tied up in Norfolk, amid reports that they might be sold to the military.
   The two ships are combined cargo and passenger ships, capable of 40 knots in the open ocean. Both ships were capable of carrying up to 866 passengers, along with either 282 compact cars, or 20 large trucks and 90 cars.
   MarAd has also activated four other ships for the relief effort.
   Meanwhile, Crowley Maritime, working under contract with the U.S. Transportation Command, said Wednesday it was unloading Haiti relief cargo in Rio Haina, Dominican Republic Thursday. Fifty-six of the 68 20-foot containers of water and meals-ready-to-eat (MREs) will be trucked across the border into Haiti.
   The remaining 12 loads aboard the containership Macajama will be transported by water to Port-au-Prince, and be offloaded in an experimental lightering operation and delivered across a beach on Friday. If successful, future shipments could be made directly to Port-au-Prince.
   Crowley said its plans are for the Macajama to anchor offshore near the port’s damaged south pier and near an exposed beach. Using a shipboard crane on the Macajama, the 12 remaining containers would be lowered onto a smaller vessel operated by G and G Shipping and delivered across the beach on wheels.
   Crowley said a team from its TITAN Salvage subsidiary surveyed the port area Monday and determined that such an operation was possible. They also determined it would be possible to establish a temporary docking structure on the beach using a Crowley 400-foot-long by 100-foot-wide flat deck barge.
   Crowley is mobilizing such a barge and a crane from Orange, Texas, that could be used for cargo discharge, and plans to have both on the scene in Port-au-Prince by Feb. 2.
      Meanwhile, Crowley said a new wave of Haiti relief supplies in about 100 20-foot containers is being loaded Thursday at Crowley’s Port Everglades facility on the roll-on/roll-off ship Crowley Americas, and will be transported to Rio Haina for delivery on Saturday. Those containers, also moving under contract with USTRANSCOM, were consolidated and stuffed at Crowley’s Miami warehouse. They will be trucked across the border into Haiti.
   The Macajama is scheduled to return to Port Everglades over the weekend and load more relief cargo, which could be delivered directly to Port-au-Prince next week, if the test lightering operation is successful Friday.