Rhine river opens for traffic

JocSailings - 

The river Rhine in Germany re-opened to shipping in both directions for the first time since a motorized barge carrying 2,400 tons of sulfuric acid capsized three weeks ago in a narrow bend in Europe's busiest inland waterway.

Ships were allowed to sail upstream past the wreck of the Waldhof on a controlled basis a week after it sank on Jan. 13 in a stretch of the river in the middle Rhine valley between Mainz and Koblenz.

But downstream traffic was halted until Feb. 2 because of fears acid or hydrogen on board the Waldhof could cause an explosion.

This created a backlog of more than 400 vessels, including bulk cargo barges and laden inland container vessels bound for northern ports including Rotterdam, and led to shippers switching to road and rail transport.

Up to 50 barges a day are being allowed to sail downstream after salvers managed to remove hydrogen from all seven tanks on the sunken tanker.

Salvers plan to start removing the acid from the Waldhof Feb. 3 before it can be lifted out of the river by barge-mounted cranes.

Two of the Waldhof's crew were rescued but two are still missing and presumed dead. The cause of the accident is still not known.

The Rhine, which flows to Rotterdam from the Swiss Alps, handles around 170 million tons of cargo a year, including more than 1 million ocean containers.

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