This Sunken Crane Barge Was in the Providence River for 7 Years. Now It Will Become a Work of Art.

PROVIDENCE – A semi-submersible barge that has marred the Providence River since 2017 will finally be removed – and transformed into a piece of public art.

A $1.5 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will cover the cost of removing a 114-foot crane barge from where it sank during a fall nor’easter, the Rhode Island congressional delegation announced Thursday.

Individual sections of the steel-hulled barge will be transformed into “community-engaging art pieces” and amenities will be installed at the waterfront at the end of Public Street in partnership between the Department of Environmental Management and The Steel Yard.

“Finally getting the sunken crane out of the water will be a huge deal,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, whose office announced the grant, said in a statement. “I can’t wait to see what The Steel Yard and some talented Rhode Island students will do to transform this eyesore into a work of public art befitting its location across the highway from the iconic Big Blue Bug.”

According to the release, funding comes from the NOAA Marine Debris Program.

Why wasn’t the shoulder removed earlier?

After the 150-ton MG Marine Barge sank in a storm in 2017, its owner, Mark Ginalski, refused to remove it. He died in 2020, leaving the state to clean up the mess.

The barge has not been deemed an immediate environmental hazard and does not impede shipping traffic. However, local officials have suggested that leaving it in place would be another example of South Providence becoming a landfill.

As The Providence Journal previously reported, the barge’s large size makes it incredibly difficult to remove. One option would be to drop a heavy steel beam on it and break it into smaller pieces — but the Coastal Resources Management Council doesn’t approve of that, saying it could disrupt the riverbed and release pollutants into the water.

Other options include using a giant crane to lift the barge out of the water or having divers cut it with torches. However, for many years, funding was not available.

“The abandoned ship, whose crane juts out of the water at a 45-degree angle, has been there so long that it has become as much a part of the South Providence landscape as Rhode Island Hospital and the Big Blue Bug,” The Journal noted last year.

More: Rhode Island may be the smallest state, but we have the world’s largest Big Blue Bug

The barge will have an unexpected afterlife

DEM and The Steel Yard, a Providence-based arts center specializing in welding and blacksmithing, will work with community groups and high school students to find new, creative uses for materials recovered from the barge, according to a news release from Whitehouse’s office.

“The removal of the crane is long overdue, and I can’t wait to see what our state’s talented artists and students will create to turn this blight into beauty,” Gov. Dan McKee said in a statement.

The abandoned barge sank just off industrial Public Street, one of the few waterfront rights-of-way in South Providence. The access point was blocked off for years, but in 2021, CRMC officially designated it a public right-of-way — and there’s been talk of turning it into a community park ever since.

One day, instead of looking at the half-sunken barge, tourists could sit on a bench or picnic table made from its remains.

This article originally appeared in The Providence Journal: Sunken Providence River crane barge to become public art