Big barge carrying bridge heads west to Lockport this morning

Orleans will get another chance to see second large barge carrying other half of bridge bound for Buffalo

Photos by Tom Rivers: A 195-foot-long barge carrying two sections of a bridge passes through Holley on Monday around noon. The barge started the day in Rochester and headed west all the way through Orleans County, ending the day in Gasport.

Orleans County will get another chance to see a tugboat pushing an enormous barge on the Erie Canal.

The first barge will complete its journey to Buffalo, likely today. Carver Companies from near Albany has a tugboat pushing two 195-foot-long barges along the canal. The barges are carrying four sections of a 266-foot-long pedestrian bridge for the Ralph Wilson Park Conservancy in Buffalo. The bridge was made in Italy.

The barges were traveling close together for most of the journey along the canal. But on Monday one stayed in Pittsford while the other made the trip from Rochester all the way to Gasport. Carver was planning to stop in Albion on Monday and then go back for the other barge from Pittsford.

But the captain decided to keep going, moving past Albion and going through Orleans County and stopping in Gasport. The crew worked in a downpour on Monday afternoon.

Today the barge pushed by a tugboat reached Lockport around 7 a.m. and will keep moving west, expecting to reach the Tonawanda Canal Fest at 3 p.m.

Once the barge reaches the final destination in Buffalo, tugboat CMT Otter will go back to Pittsford and then make the journey through the rest of Monroe County, then Orleans, Niagara and to Buffalo in Erie County.

“Good news is you will have two chances to see us!” Carver posted on its Facebook page on Monday night.

A tugboat, named CMT Otter, pushes the big barge west. This was taken from the Route 237 bridge near the guard gate on the Erie Canal in Holley.