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High voltage cable torn down during lightering of grounded barge

The "Stiro", 2084 ts (EU-No.: 02315076), ran aground in an excavator hole at the Rhine between Voerde and Rheinberg in the evening of Dec 20, 2016. The ship, which was loaded with gravel, got stuck when entering the hole at Götterswickerhamm. It had to be lightered to get off again. A crane barge arrived in the morning of Dec 21 and removed about 250 tons of the gravel from the cargo hold to reduce the draught. At 9.34 a.m. the crane boom touched a high voltage cable, and one of the leading cables of the 220-KV line Wesel-East broke, another was damaged. In addition, a cable of the power operator Westnetz was severely damaged. The torn cable landed on the banks of both Rhine sides at Voerde and Rheinberg. Employees of cable operator Amprion had to take precautions as the torn cable caused a loss of the pre-existing counter-tension on the mast. The forces had to be compensated. Therefore, ropes were attached to the masts and anchored in the ground. The work lasted until the late evening of Dec 21. The demolished cable was to be replaced by Amprion until Dec 23. During the work the ship traffic must be blocked. The incident had no further consequences for the electricity supply in the region. The resulting damage was in the 6-digit range. German report with photo: http://www.rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/dinslaken/schiff-beschaedigt-mit-seinem-kran-eine-hochspannungsleitung-aid-1.6482091