Domtar Paper Company Proposes Dock Expansion On Ohio River

Domtar Paper Company LLC, Hawesville, Ky., is seeking permission from the Louisville Engineer District to expand its barge docking capacity at its facility located on Ohio River Mile 719.

Downstream of the existing offload station, the company said it proposes to install two dolphins at the existing three-barge-wide by three-barge-long configuration. Each dolphin would be driven into the river bottom and filled with 80 cubic yards of KYDOT No. 5 aggregate.

The dolphin structures would be spaced 75 feet apart and would extend approximately 75 feet from normal pool elevation of 383 Ohio River Datum.

The dolphin structures would prevent the existing nine-barge fleet from drifting inward due to river currents and damaging an existing diffusion pipe located just beneath the water surface. Further downstream, Domtar said it would like to expand the existing three-barge-wide by three-barge-long configuration to a three-barge-wide by five-barge-long configuration for a 15-barge capacity.

The company said it would install an additional above-ground anchor block at this location. Upstream, the company said it wants two 15-barge-capacity configurations.

Overall, the proposed project would include the expansion of two existing barge fleeting areas to 15-barge-capacity fleeting areas, the addition of one new 15-barge-capacity barge fleeting area and the installation of eight above-ground concrete anchor blocks on both the upstream and downstream side of the existing offloading station, with four below-ground concrete deadmen on the upstream side of the platform.

All deadmen anchors would be 20 feet long, 20 feet wide and 8 feet deep and would require the placement of rip-rap bank protection placed above the ordinary high-water mark elevation of 383.3 feet.