Sunken Barge Raised, Move Down River
(CBS) -- That 200 foot barge which sank in the Chicago River in mid-October has now been moved from its resting place between Randolph and Lake Street, reports WBBM's John Cody.
Peter Perich, the vice president of Lindahl Marine Salvage, used a two pronged technique to raise the barge, flooding air into the intact tanks and raising the sunken middle by using heavy duty floatation devices.
"Visibility was nearly zero and that is how most of our work is, it is all done by feel," Perich said. "That is why you bring in somebody who does this for a living as opposed to getting involved in hiring novice divers and scuba divers and people that don't have experience doing this kind of work."
The U.S. Coast Guard says the salvage crews had the barge high enough Saturday night, so that a tug could shove it five miles south down the Chicago River out of the way of river traffic.