A bridge tender started too late in opening a swing span in Louisiana before a three-barge tow struck it in June 2024, the National Transportation Safety Board reported.
The 55.2’ towing vessel Josset was transiting the Morgan City-Port Allen Route of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, about 2.7 miles from Crescent, Louisiana, pushing three barges, shortly after 5 a.m. when the lead barge struck the Bayou Grosse Tête Bridge. There were no injuries, no pollution reported.
The Josset, built in 2001 for C & J Marine Services, Inc., was pushing a 692’ string of three barges upbound. About 4:52 a.m., with the pilot navigating the Josset in darkness, the tow approached the Bayou Grosse Tête Bridge at mile 47. A bridge tender was stationed on the east bank to operate the bridge, which would swing open from the west bank toward the south.
According to the pilot, when the head of the Josset tow was about a mile from the bridge, the pilot called the bridge tender by radio and requested an opening. The bridge tender stated that, according to automatic identification system (AIS) data, the Josset was making 3 mph at the time, and he requested the pilot call back when the tow was “a little over half mile” from the bridge.
The pilot told investigators that he radioed the bridge tender again when the tow was 0.5 miles from the bridge and said he was told to proceed and that the bridge would be open by the time the towboat got to it.
“According to the bridge tender, the towboat was 0.4 miles from the bridge when the pilot called the second time. (The bridge tender believed that the AIS position was for the Josset’s GNSS antenna. This assumption was correct; the towboat’s GNSS antenna was located above its wheelhouse.)
But the tow’s AIS static data broadcast only included the length of the towboat and not the total length of the barges, NTSB investigators found. The head of the tow was about an eighth of a mile closer to the bridge than the towboat.
About a half mile south of the bridge, there was a bend in the waterway, where the Josset pilot had to avoid another tow, the Tennessee Merchant and barges, that was pushed up on the west bank. After passing the Tennessee Merchant tow, the lead barge was about 2,000 feet away from the bridge when the bridge came into the pilot’s line of sight.
The lead barge was empty and sitting high out of the water, somewhat obstructing the pilot’s view. The pilot told investigators that he did not send a deckhand forward on the tow to act as a lookout since he had navigated Bayou Sorrell Lock earlier without problems.
During the second call, the bridge tender had responded that he would start to open the bridge and for the vessel to proceed.
When the lead barge reached the bridge, the pilot noted the bridge was not yet open and backed the tow. As he was backing down, the bridge started to open, with the lead barge, inside the fendering.
Although the pilot was backing, the tow still had headway, and the lead barge struck the swing span. The bridge tender stated that he never signaled that the bridge was open and estimated the swing span was only a quarter of the way open upon impact.
The 110-day shutdown of the bridge crossing required an almost 1-hour detour for vehicles. Iberville Parish officials arranged for a passenger ferry for residents and school bus passengers. Repairs to the bridge were made at a cost of $2.5 million, and the bridge was placed back into service in September 2024.
In its conclusions the NTSB stated “the probable cause of the contact between the Josset tow and the Bayou Grosse Tête Bridge was the bridge tender’s miscalculation of the Josset’s proximity, which resulted in him not starting to open the bridge in a timely manner.”
“Contributing was the lack of a lookout stationed on the head of the tow, resulting in the pilot being unaware the bridge was not open until it was too late to stop the tow.”
