Bouchard Funds Simulation Center at SUNY Maritime

Bouchard Transportation Co., Inc., headquartered in Melville, N.Y., said that the company will dpnate $750,000 to the State university of New York (SUNY) Maritime College’s Throgs Neck Campus to establish the Bouchard Transportation Company, Inc., Tug and Barge Simulation Center.

The center will offer full mission bridge simulators, instruction stations and a debriefing area where instructors can meet with students to discuss navigation, seamanship and bridge resource management skills required in the operation of tug and barges.

A request for proposal has been publicly released on the New York State Contract System website for interested and qualified firms to work with Bouchard Transportation on modeling the simulator off the bridges of the company’s tugboats. The physical model of the bridge will be made to fit one model; however the electronic components will be based upon four different models of Bouchard tugboats. Additionally, the simulation will include eight areas of operation including approaches to New York harbor, Port Jefferson, the Long Island Sound, Norfolk, the Chesapeake, Port Everglades and others.

The simulation facility will be available to SUNY Maritime College students as part of their program of study. The facility will also be available for the training of Bouchard employees as well as employees of other tug and barge operators with the mission of always improving on a safe transportation system within the Unites States waterways.

 The Bouchard Transportation Co., Inc. Tug and Barge Simulation Center is slated to open in 2014.

bouchardtransport.com

sunymaritime.edu