By Gidget Fuentes, USNI News, November 7, 2018
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published a final rule today that clarifies certification requirements for crane operators, and maintains the employer’s duty to ensure that crane operators can safely operate the equipment. The final rule will maintain safety and health protections for workers while reducing compliance burdens.
For the first time in more than 20 years, sailors moved off their ship going into major repairs are getting better digs with new berthing barges.
The Navy has taken delivery of four new barges, the first of the APL-67 class of Auxiliary Personnel Lighter berthing and messing barges that will replace 27 older barges. A fifth barge, APL-70 – is under construction by Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding (formerly Halter Marine).
Along with berthing for unaccompanied sailors, the new barges also provide office space and amenities found on ship, including a medical center, laundry, barber shop and a fitness center along with a local area network and hundreds of networking hubs so sailors have ease of online access.
Already, for sailors living through a maintenance availability at a commercial shipyard, the Navy has been pushing out to commercial shipyards a pier-side connectivity system called the Wireless Connectivity Bridge, he said. That’s closed a gap especially on ships or along waterfronts that have poor commercial cellular connectivity.
All those investments matter a lot to sailors.
“I can already see the excitement from the crew when we realized that we will be on a brand new barge,” Chief Logistics Specialist Errmon McClarin, a command climate specialist, said in an April Navy news story about APL-70’s arrival. “This is a great change compared to the rugged environment we experience on the ship.”
