WASHINGTON (Nov. 12, 2020) — The failure of a weld ultimately led to a barge breaking loose from its mooring and heavily damaging a pier, the National Transportation Safety Board said in its Marine Accident Brief 20-35 issued Thursday
On Nov. 17, 2019, sometime before sunrise, a construction barge broke free from its mooring in stormy weather and drifted about two miles to the south before it contacted and damaged an entertainment pier and grounded on a beach just north of a fishing pier in Hampton, Virginia.
Emergency responders were notified but were unable to stop the barge's continued movement down the beach where it ultimately contacted the James T. Wilson fishing pier. The contact caused two of the pier's forty-foot concrete spans to collapse.
(The damaged James T. Wilson fishing pier with debris on the deck of the barge is depicted in this photo taken Nov. 17, 2019. Photo Credit: U.S. Coast Guard)
Nobody was aboard the barge or on the pier when the accident occurred. No one was injured in the accident, which resulted in more than a million dollars of damage to the pier and about $38,000 to the barge.
Investigators determined a weld on the shackle that connected the barge to the mooring chain failed, allowing the barge to set adrift.
The eight-page Marine Accident Brief 20-35 is available at https://go.usa.gov/x7Qjk.
NTSB accident reports in all modes of transportation can now be accessed through CAROL, the NTSB's new accident investigation search tool: https://go.usa.gov/x7Rnj.
To report an incident/accident or if you are a public safety agency, please call 1-844-373-9922 or 202-314-6290 to speak to a Watch Officer at the NTSB Response Operations Center (ROC) in Washington, DC (24/7).
