There is a large crane on a barge in the Pitt River, dealing with a pair of mostly sunken barges in the waterway near the Pitt River Bridge.
The barges are owned and operated by Lehigh/Heidelberg, a cement company. These boats are at the end of their equipment cycle, but they are properly secured and pose no navigational or environmental risks, said Arpen Rana, who is a spokesperson for the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.
As part of the port authority’s role to ensure safe and efficient ship movements, their harbour patrol officers monitor the Port of Vancouver’s jurisdiction daily, including the Pitt River area.
Rana said the port authority is working with Lehigh/Heidelberg and other relevant agencies to coordinate the removal of the barges, and there is a contractor on site. So far the barges have been moved, but remain on the shore on the Pitt Meadows side of the river, just north of the bridge.
Local people, including Mark Caros of the Alouette River Management Society, have been watching the sinking barges with concern.
