According to the Coast Guard, "a barge has hit the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge" around 6 p.m. this evening. Yikes! The barge, reportedly carrying 63,000 barrels of heavy black oil, hit the east piling of the west span. So far there are no reports of any injuries or leakage.

Ah, a light day.

Anyway, according to ABC 7, this isn't the first time that a barge has smacked the bridge in question. It seems that "[i]n July of 2004, a 650-foot ship hit the base of one of the support towers...trying to avoid colliding with a sailboat."

We'll update you with any reports of oil spillage and subsequent finger-pointing and self-righteous outrage.

[Update: Team coverage here. Get the Coast Guard's POV on this deal. Track the oil skimmer courtesy of Boating SF here (It's just south of the bridge at post time.) The latest report is that the football field-length barge got dented 8 feet above the water line. That's great news if this report pans out.

And people of the MSM, we know you mean to say "barrels" when you say "gallons". But c'mon, try a little harder. The barge in question has a capacity of 2.7 million gallons (or so) of petroluem, not 65,000 gallons as is generally reported. If a giant ripped up the barge in question and dumped all of its oil into the bay, that would be about 40 times more than what the Cosco Busan leaked out. A big difference. TYVM!]

Altered image credit goes to flickr's darinmarshall (via Wikipedia)

Clean Bay II