TITUSVILLE -- A barge that sank into the Indian River with a crane on top was finally floating again Monday after an entire week's worth of recovery work. See previous story.
"It has a lot of holes in it. It's an older barge," said Phillip Buyel, owner of the salvage company that raised the barge. "Now it won't take much longer, and it'll be floating, and can be taken away."
Some 100 gallons of diesel fuel dumped into the Indian River when the barge and crane sank has also been cleaned up, but bystanders, including Chuck Duhun, said the spill, the partially-closed marina and the work's slow progress is frustrating.
"That's a problem. When you get that thing stuck in the muck with that many holes in it, it's a mess," Duhun said.
Officials said the barge should be gone Monday, and the crane could be hoisted out within two days. For crews, that means a lot of heavy machinery doing dangerous work in a small space.
"It's tight quarters in here, and we're trying to contain everything in one little area. There's not much room," Buyel said.
The Coast Guard is still trying to figure out exactly what caused the collapse.
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