CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The city of Corpus Christi is pressing the contractor who promised to remove a barge from the Packery Channel before Spring Break.
The barge, which has been stuck in Packery Channel since September, is supposed to be beached, sectioned and removed by early March, officials said previously.
Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni said the four months the project has been underway has exceeded what he deems an appropriate timeline for the work.
"I told my team 'Enough is enough.' No offense to Callan (the barge's owner)," he said. "I know they've been working, but not hard enough, I think, for our community. And so we said 'Let's go to the next step,' which is -- we called the contract into play, which is a breach of contract.' "
The salvage company hired to remove the barge, Resolve Marine, was supposed to begin to move the barge to the beach Feb. 19 for it to be sectioned, and the scraps removed. During the process, access to the walkway on the South Packery Channel jetty and nearby beach area would be restricted for about 16 days.
A plan in place
City engineering director Jeff Edmonds explained that the contractor will set a sand anchor then drag the barge onto the beach.
"They're going to bury a 'deadman' in the sand," he said. "It's going to be underground and able to support the tension in the chain."
The chain will drag the 200,000 lb. barge onto the beach, where it will be dismantled and trucked away. The contractor will also clean spilled rock off the jetty, and make sure there's no shrapnel from the barge itself, which could cause injury.
This plan B was created after divers realized the original plan was unsafe after surveying the damage under the barge in December.
A dangerous eyesore?
Corpus Christi Dist. 4 Councilmember Dan Suckley said he's aware of local business concerns about the barge.
"They'd prefer not to have that eyesore and potential safety hazard sitting there in the surf," he said.
Mike Grimslid and his wife, Kay, visited the Coastal Bend all the way from Wisconsin. Kay Grimslid said that she doesn't consider the barge so much an eyesore as a danger.
"I have a feeling that some of the kids might be trying to get onto it," she said.
Mike Grimslid said that he feels negligence has played a major role in why the barge has not been moved.
"It's taken them a long time to do what they should have done originally," he said. "And that's my opinion of why that barge is still plopped up on that jetty there."