Take a steel box — maybe 195'x35' — one that floats, fill its belly full of 1,500 tons of dry cargo and float it down the river. Or take a steel box, a bigger one, fill its belly full of petroleum products and slide it down the river. Maybe take a smaller steel box with no belly and stack a bunch of smaller boxes on top of it and glide it down the river. These things happen every day by the hundreds.
But barges floating down the river on their own would create chaos. What’s needed are boats to guide them to their destinations.
According to WorkBoat’s latest annual Construction Survey, a total of 64 such boats were either under contract, under construction, or delivered from October 2023 through September 2024.
“Historically, operators have leaned on CT Marine for line-hauls, which amounts to a very small slice of the pie, but I see a need for more modern towboats in the lower horsepower ranges,” said Christian Townsend, CT Marine’s owner and co-owner of Hyperion Marine Group. “The smaller boats are often shipyard-designed or built off an older design and it’s time to modernize.”
TOWBOATS/PUSHBOATS
Here are three of the more interesting boats added to the inland waterway industry’s total fleet between April 2024 and April 2025.
American Commercial Barge Line (ACBL), Jeffersonville, Ind., took delivery of its new 200'x50'x12'6" line-haul towboat Mariner in December. The towboat is the largest built in the U.S. in 50 years, according to ACBL.
Constructed by C&C Marine and Repair, Belle Chasse, La., and designed by CT Marine, Edgecomb, Maine, the 11,000-hp boat has an operating draft of 11'6", eight 65-ton winches, dual steering and flanking rudders, and can adjust its operating draft by up to 18" to navigate shallow waters during low-river levels.
Main propulsion for the Mariner comes from twin Caterpillar C280-12 diesel engines connected to Hung Shin 5-bladed wheels through Reintjes WAF 6755 marine gears supplied by Karl Senner. Steering and controls are the responsibility of CT Marine’s TwinDIFF system.
“The overall age of the fleet is pressing 45-plus years; wanted or not, we need a huge ramp-up in towboat construction to replace the aging fleet,” said Townsend.
Eymard Marine Construction & Repair, Harvey, La., delivered the 67'6"x28'x9'6" push tug Soaring Eagle to Colonial Oil Industries Inc., Savannah, Ga., at the end of 2024.
Bob Kenyon, president and chief operating officer at Colonial Group, said Soaring Eagle and its tank barge, CTOW 320, represent a major advancement for Colonial’s marine division and a strategic investment in the company’s marine fueling and towing capabilities.
CTOW 320 has a 32,000 bbls. capacity, 12 compartments, four segregations, and the ability to carry various fuels and cargoes. The vessel also represents the company’s continued commitment to reducing its environmental impact.
The Entech-designed twin-screw Soaring Eagle’s main propulsion comes from two Caterpillar C32 diesel engines each producing 800 hp at 1,800 rpm. The Cats connect to Sound Propeller stainless steel, 4-bladed 68"x57"wheels through Twin Disc MGX-5321 marine gears with 5.96:1 reduction ratios. The tug draws 8' fully loaded. The propulsion package gives the tug a running speed of 10 knots.
Soaring Eagle is primarily working between Charleston, S.C., and Jacksonville, Fla. Tankage includes 18,512 gals. fuel; 4,500 gals. water; and 453 gals. lube oil.
Another combination of tug and barge was delivered to the Tennessee Department of Transportation. What TDOT did here was build a new towboat — the 48'x18'x6'4" Summitt — and connect it to a 90'x26' deck barge the agency already owned called the Volunteer to create a ferry that operates between Benton and Houston counties.
In 2023, the ferry service transported approximately 14,500 vehicles. The TDOT expects Summitt to serve the region for the next 30 years, replacing a 67-year-old pushboat.
Summitt was designed by SeaCraft Design LLC, Sturgeon Bay, Wis., and built by McGinnis Inc.’s Sheridan Shipyard, South Point, Ohio. The vessel was funded by federal and state tax dollars at a total cost of $3.3 million.
Main propulsion comes from twin John Deere 6090AFM85 diesel engines, each rated at 285 hp at 2,100 rpm. Twin Disc MG-5091DC reduction gears with a 3.82:1 ratio spin 44"-diameter Michigan Wheel Workhorse 4-bladed propellers. The pushboat meets EPA Tier 3 emissions standards, and its fuel capacity, split between forward (2,880 gals.) and aft tanks (1,180 gals.), totals 4,060 gals.
“The operator could not be more pleased,” Bill Foster, executive director of McNational, parent company of McGinnis, said at the boat’s christening ceremony. “It has twice the horsepower, half the noise, and it’s a world away from a 1950s pushboat,” which was being used previously.
Ship’s service power comes from a
Kubota KK4 generator, while additional systems onboard include R.W. Fernstrum & Co. grid coolers for engine cooling, and an Ahead Sanitation Systems marine sanitation device for wastewater treatment.
Electronics, installed and provided by Gemini Electronics of Paducah, Ky., include a Furuno 1935 radar.
The vessel also features McGinnis custom side fendering and Schuyler fenders on the bow and stern to enhance operational safety.
Deck equipment includes a Nabrico hand-operated, two-ton winch on the foredeck and a Wintech WK-3600-08 winch on the stern for securing the pushboat to the barge in rough weather conditions.
What’s ahead for the towboat industry? “We have worked on an electric harbor-fleeting boat for five years and are going to launch the design at Inland Marine Expo 25. The operators are slow to adopt but it’s coming and has been on the front burner at CT Marine for a decade,” said Townsend. “Autonomous towboats will follow, after the industry fully adopts hybrid technologies.”
For now, Townsend sees the need for additional lower-horsepower boats to replace the vessels that are aging out. “CT Marine will soon launch a series of low-horsepower stock designs to better maintain our foot in the water with what needs to be replaced,” he said. “Our experience with the last 10 CT Marine boats is our clients are building to add, but as I said, it’s the small boats that need to be replaced.”
BARGES
Barge operators took delivery of 36 new inland tank barges in 2024, a 38% increase over 2023’s total of 26. The combined capacity of the barges delivered rose nearly 90% to 922,000 bbls., up from 484,000 bbls. in 2023, according to Criton Corp.’s River Transport News (RTN).
Despite the year-over-year increase, the newsletter said new tank barge construction activity is at historic lows.
“There’s a lot of pent-up demand for replacement barges,” said Sandor Toth, RTN’s publisher. “Companies are putting more money into maintenance of their current equipment because the price of new barges is too high. They’re putting their money into workarounds.”
In 2023, much of the new equipment delivered was in the 10,000-bbl. capacity class, but 2024 saw 30,000-bbl. barges return to prominence. Mississippi River/Gulf Coast barge operators took delivery of 28 new 30,000-bbls. tank barges last year. Clean product barges accounted for 22 of the barges while heater-equipped barges accounted for the remaining six. Meanwhile, in 2023, barge operators took delivery of eight 30,000-bbl. barges. Six were built for clean product service while the remaining two were equipped with heaters, according to RTN. “The price of steel and the tariffs are adding to the owners’ reluctance to build new,” said Toth.
On the dry side, new hopper barge construction activity hit 395 new jumbo hopper barges for the Mississippi River system in 2024, an increase of 16% from 2023.
While new hopper deliveries were up for the second year in a row, shipyard activity remained relatively subdued last year and was well below levels that were hit prior to 2017. As recently as 2016, new hopper deliveries were near 1,000 before plunging during the following year and remaining at relatively low levels, according to RTN.
High barge prices, combined with rising interest rates, have acted as one of the largest drags on the hopper construction sector over the past few years. While steel prices are still relatively high by historical standards, prices for plate steel appear to have moderated somewhat in 2024. This moderation may have helped push 2024’s new hopper delivery total higher, the newsletter reported.
RTN’s surveys identified a total of 11 barge companies building new hopper barge equipment in 2024, up from 10 companies constructing new hopper barges in 2023. Several of the companies that purchased new equipment did so primarily to lease to others.
The two most prolific shipyards building jumbos were Arcosa Marine Products, Madisonville, La., which built 262, and Heartland Fabrication, Brownsville, Pa., which built 133. “Since the closing of Jeffboat, I think we’re seeing a little more pricing power for the shipyards,” said Toth.
