From Church Steeples to Tugboats: The Evolution of NYS Marine Highway Transportation Company
/It all started, strangely enough, with a niche construction specialty – rehabilitating old churches. RPI architectural school grads Rob Goldman and Tim Dufel founded Regenerative Building Construction which quickly became known as the “go to” firm for the repair, renovation, and reconstruction of churches.
As the company continued to grow and evolve, to assist with projects requiring maritime construction capabilities, the partners designed and built a small tug and barge combination named Mame Faye after the infamous Troy madame. This marked the beginning of a forty-year journey with New York’s inland waterways and maritime industry, filled with unforeseen twists and turns.
After being awarded a contract to run the City of Troy’s municipal marina, a fleet of canal “narrowboats” for hire quickly followed, as well as a second tugboat: the 2000 Waterford Tugboat Roundup Tug of the Year, and recipient of the prestigious Theordore Tugboat “Floating Friend” Award, Benjamin Elliot. At its core, Regenerative Building Construction remained a construction company, with a growing interest in the maritime industry. But bigger things were on the horizon.
Today, NYS Marine Highway Transportation Company is a major player in the tug and barge industry, on the inland waterways of New York State and beyond. Owners Goldman, Dufel, and Michelle Hayes have expanded operations to include bulk transportation, project cargo, ship docking, and marine construction. The fleet that traces its roots back to the diminutive Mame Faye has expanded exponentially over the years and now includes eight tugboats, 6 barges, a quarters barge, and two cranes. The company’s two sites in Troy, where it all began, include an administrative office downtown, and a maintenance yard in the historic Lansingburgh area, near where Herman Melville’s study of vessels transiting the Hudson River would later inspire some of the greatest literary works ever produced.
The company’s initial foray into shipping through New York’s historic Canal System concentrated moving project cargo. Project cargo refers to oversized or heavy items of high value that cannot be easily transported over land due to their dimensions or weight. Over the years, this has included generators produced at General Electric in Schenectady (historically known as the city that lights the world) and other large electrical equipment such as rotors, generators, and transformers; huge “paper dryers” for commercial paper mills; condensers; cranes; rebar towers for highway bridge projects, electrical cable; other manufacturing equipment; and nuclear submarine sonar arrays for the U.S. Navy.
While project cargo laid the foundation, NYS Marine Highway soon took on the challenge of reviving bulk cargo transportation through the Canal System. The NYS Marine Highway team was eager to challenge another widely-accepted “fact” about New York’s Canals – that bulk cargo could no longer be moved through them efficiently. Over the years, the company has dispelled that myth, moving soybeans along the Oswego Canal, specialty wheat from the Great Lakes to the Hudson River, and – more recently – bulk aggregate projects from Fort Ann on the Champlain Canal to the New York metropolitan area. The latter has produced a renaissance in bulk transportation on the Canal and has been covered in trade publications such as Professional Mariner and Marine News, as well as news outlets in New York’s Capital Region.
According to Steve Hayes, Operations Officer for Marine Highway and Tugboat Roundup Planning Committee Member, balancing all of the company’s obligations and operations is a challenge, but one the company is certainly up to.
“What you plan to do or deal with on any given day invariably turns out to be different from what you actually do or deal with,” Hayes, a SUNY Maritime graduate, said. “It is never boring, and that’s part of what we love about it. We also love that our vocation represents a mix of both business development and historic preservation. We are preserving a vital part of our past, and in doing so we help keep an industry which we believe is equally important for our future, viable.”
From steeples to tugboat masts, the growth of NYS Marine Highway Company has been rapid. Still, throughout much of the firm’s evolution, there had been one constant. The tugboats acquired were capable of transiting the New York State Canal System – renowned since long before Thomas S. Allen’s iconic staple “Low Bridge” for its low bridges – in order to move project and bulk cargo through the 524-mile inland waterway. In some cases, like the Mame Faye and the Benjamin Elliot, the wheelhouses were low enough to clear the bridges. In other cases, the tugboats featured “telescoping” wheelhouses – essentially going up and down on elevator shafts as necessary to see over the barge, while being capable of lowering to get under those low bridges. Today, the Marine Highway fleet features four such tugboats: the Margot, Frances, Lucy H., and Edna A.
Today, nearly half of the firm’s tugboat fleet are larger, river and coastal tugs with fixed wheelhouses, meaning the tugboats are too large to transit the Canal System. However, the bridge immediately to Waterford’s south, the 112th Street Bridge connecting Troy and Cohoes, affords greater vertical clearance than other structures upstream. Formerly a draw bridge, the span was maintained in an operable condition well into the 1980s to support operations at the Matton Shipyard in Cohoes. Large, ocean-going tugboats built at the shipyard had to transit south, necessitating the opening of the bridge. Though the mid-1990s replacement of the bridge came well after the closure of the shipyard, a slightly greater vertical clearance of about 27 feet was maintained. This allows larger tugboats (and a Tugboat Roundup favorite, the NYSC Fireboat John J. Harvey) to make it to the wall in Waterford for the annual event.
This is also the case with NYS Marine Highway’s flagship and this year’s Tug of the Year: the Sarah D. Acquired in 2016 from Moran Towing Company, the boat was formerly known as the Helen D. Coppedge. At 90 feet in length, a 162-ton displacement, and 2,000 horsepower – the tugboat is one of the largest and most powerful in the fleet. Honoring the Sarah D. for the 25th anniversary of the Tugboat Roundup is altogether fitting, as it is not just the vessels, but the people and the companies who ply these waters – and invest in the future of our waterways – that we celebrate. For Michelle Hayes, Rob Goldman, Tim Dufel, and the entire NYSMH team, the recognition is a validation of the investment they’d made, the people they’ve employed, and the New York State businesses and industry’s they’ve help keep competitive and thriving due to the availability of marine transportation.
We sat down with Capt. Goldman to talk about the history of the company, the last 25 years of TBR, and the recognition of the Sarah D. as this year’s TOTY.
TBR: 25 years. You have been integral to the success of the event since year one – can you believe we’re still doing this?
Goldman: Honestly, no. We should probably stop. Seriously, the growth of the event has mostly paralleled the growth of our company. Michelle, Tim, Chris, Steve and I could not be prouder to help support this event each year.
TBR: Knowing what you know now, would you make the same decision to get out of the construction business and focus on marine work?
Goldman: Absolutely. We’ve had great years and less great years, and some hits and misses, but the trajectory has consistently been up and we are grateful.
TBR: Despite the continued viability of project cargo through the Canal System, as bulk transportation dropped off in the early 90s there was a thought that it wouldn’t come back. Despite that assumption, NYSMH was convinced it could. What made you so sure?
Goldman: Canalling is a game of inches. This is true with project cargo, but it is also true with bulk. The key question is, where is the product and where does it need to go, and are both of those places near the water? And if the answer is yes, what is it worth, and how efficiently can we move it. We have the knowledge and the experience to move product efficiently by barge whether on the Canals, the Hudson River, the Great Lakes. It’s just a matter of the logistical considerations you need to account for with those different operations.
TBR: There will always be project cargo, but do you think we’ll continue to see growth in bulk transportation by barge, specifically on the Canals?
Goldman: Yes. There is no more efficient and environmentally friendly means of moving materials than by water. Moving the same tonnage that you would on land, you’ll use a fraction of the fuel – and create a fraction of the emissions – when you move that product on water. So, both the economics and the environmental considerations favor it.
TBR: Even on the Canal?
Goldman: Even on the Canal. For years, the State tracked tonnage two different ways. Tonnage, and originating tonnage. The idea was that originating tonnage represented an exponentially greater value to the State because it was a product, or crop, or commodity that was produced by a New York company, employing New York workers, paying New York taxes, etc. You still have those companies – farms, quarries, manufacturers – and in many cases those products can still be moved by water. And in many cases, that can still provide a strategic advantage to businesses in New York State when compared to similar businesses in other states which don’t have the ability to ship by water.
TBR: What’s your favorite part of the job?
Goldman: The people. The crews on the boats, the people work in the yard. We have an extraordinarily talented team and I am proud to work with them. And I think all of us feel like this is more than a job. It’s a calling.
TBR: Still a calling after all these years.
Goldman: For me, yes. And of course I spent early years at the wheel, and then in the office, and my role continues to change as I am less day-to-day operations and more on the business development and client relations side. But that’s where I am so gratified to see Steve taking the role that he has taken and it’s reassuring to know that there’s another generation. We’re not getting any younger.
TBR: What’s your favorite part of the Roundup?
Goldman: I love the whole thing. We enjoy hosting friends and clients during the parade on Friday. And again, for the fireworks Saturday night. I love the speakers and meeting people who used to work on our boats or used to run the Canal. It’s like a reunion for Canallers. And it’s definitely the highlight of the tugboat social season.
TBR: Are you aware of who the Tugboat Parade Grand Marshall is this year?
Goldman: I don’t believe I am, but I am sure it is a worthy recipient.
TBR: None other than William Curry.
Goldman: As I said, a worthy recipient! What an amazing man. A great boatman, first-rate engineer, a Navy veteran, and a good friend. We’ve done a lot with Bill over the years. He is an amazing man. I can’t think of anyone more deserving of the recognition.
TBR: Do you think the future is bright for New York’s inland waterways, and for the Canal System specifically?
Goldman: Yes, I believe so. As the focus on reducing fossil fuels and greenhouse emissions grows, inland waterway transportation will play a larger role in the supply chain. While challenges like unpredictable weather and infrastructure maintenance persist, we're pleased to see New York investing in the Canal System. Reflecting on our journey, it’s remarkable how far we’ve come. Twenty-five years ago, it was said that the Canal was only for recreation, which was disheartening. Now, we’re recognized as key players in New York’s competitiveness, and I believe we’re in a much better place.
TBR: So Bart Brake’s famous saying might not apply after all?
Goldman: No comment.
TBR: I think that was the first “no comment” of the conversation, which I did not expect. Thanks for the conversation, see you on the Canal.
Goldman: See you on the Canal.
2024 Tug of the year, sarah d.
