Driving south from Memphis, the group arrived at Ergon Marine & Industrial Supply in Vicksburg, Miss., located on a big bend of the river, where Port Captain Lee Hogue talked about some of the issues users on the lower Mississippi River face, such as channel maintenance and strong currents and shifting sandbars that make navigation tricky. The group boarded one of Ergon’s tugs for a ride down to the Old Vicksburg Bridge, where evidence of navigation errors was obvious from the scarred concrete piles of the bridge (you can watch traffic on that part of the river by googling “earthcam Vicksburg”). After a tour of Ergon’s boat store, the group headed over to the Engineer Research and Development Center’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers facility where they use simulators to test channel design and train pilots. The day’s travel ended in New Orleans.
The first stop in Vicksburg, Miss., was at Ergon Marine and Industrial Supply, where Port Captain Lee Hogue (upper left photo, in orange shirt) talked about some of the issues stakeholders on the lower Mississippi River face. The group then donned life vests for a tugboat ride past the Old Vicksburg Bridge.The piles on the Old Vicksburg Bridge shows evidence of past vessel collisions. You can watch real-time traffic through this stretch of the Mississippi River by googling “earthcam Vicksburg.”Spying this guy on the bank of the Mississippi River at Vicksburg, Miss., erased any notions anybody had about taking a swim. Dr. Keith Martin (right), program manager for the ship/tow simulator at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineer Research and Development Center’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory in Vicksburg, Miss., showed the group the 360-degree simulator that the laboratory uses to test channel design and train pilots.
