River safety committee reports progress with warning signs

(Left) In heavy fog, and with another right behind it, a tour boat operated by Wendella Sightseeing Company makes its last trip of the year up the Chicago River on Wednesday. Except for some human-powered craft, the boating season is all but over on the Chicago River. (Click on image to view larger version.)

6-Dec-13 – At its first annual meeting, the new committee trying to make the Chicago River a safer place brought its members up to speed on new warning signs boaters will hopefully see next year.

The Chicago Harbor Safety Committee is designing and paying for signs that will be installed at 14 locations along the river to warn of outflow currents and try to keep smaller, slower boats out of the way of bigger, faster boats.

Formed in July, the committee has already received more than 30 applications for membership. About 30 representatives of a variety of organizations with an interest in the Chicago River filled a meeting room near the far end of Navy Pier on Wednesday morning. From that group, more members were elected to the committee’s board of directors during a part of the meeting that was closed to the public.

The committee met previously on August 12 to discuss what it called “a rapid increase in the number of close calls” on the Chicago River between tour boats, barges, and other commercial vessels – and rented boats such as kayaks and electric boats.

James Long, general manager of Middle River Marine in Mokena, about 30 miles southwest of Chicago, told of an incident in October on the south branch of the river near Cermak Road. From a crane on shore, his company was loading a barge that drifted with the river back and forth against the dock. A young man in a kayak, possibly rented from the boathouse at nearby Ping Tom Memorial Park, cut between the barge and the dock.

“The barge was a partial load so we had about 800 tons of product,” Long recalled, “so if it had swung in while this piece of plastic was going by, you can imagine we would have had a major catastrophe on our hands. It just forces home the need for education of these people taking out these watercraft.”

Long says similar incidents have happened at least a few other times.

“A lot of what’s happening out there is that one side doesn’t know the other side’s perspective,” offered Susan Urbas (right), president of the committee. “And when you sit down in a room and you begin to have the representation from the different groups, you start to appreciate.”

The committee will focus on safety on the main, north, and south branches of the Chicago River, as well as an area of Lake Michigan close to Chicago.

 Previous story: ‘Close calls’ on Chicago River concern new safety committee