Taro 800 at Jamestown Boat Yard

15 February 2010 Taro 800

BOAT: Taro 800
OWNER: Reagan Construction Corp, Newport
DESIGNER & BUILDER: Nashville Bridge Co., Ashland TN http://www.nabrico-marine.com/pages/aboutus.html
HULL: Steel
LENGTH: 130 feet [39.6 meters]
YEAR: 1986
 HISTORY:
 Founded in the late 1800s by the Dyer family as a bridge building company, the Nashville Bridge Company slowly morphed into a barge building company. By the 1960s, it had become the world’s largest builder of inland barges. The company has since been sold, but still builds barges today.
 Taro 800 began her career moving sand and stone between New Bedford and Martha’s Vineyard. In 1990, The Reagan Construction Corp. bought the barge and installed SPUDS- long tubes capable of keeping the barge stationary in water as deep as 40 feet. A Manitowoc 100 ton crane was installed on deck, and Taro 800 became a powerful implement for a growing marine construction company.
 After nearly two decades of servicing ships, working on docks, and marinas, as well as countless other marine related jobs, Taro 800 is now working on improvements at Perrotti Park in Newport.
 Taro 800 is the second of two Reagan Construction Corp barges to work on the Perrotti Park project. The first barge came in to dredge the area during January, and now Taro 800 is helping with the construction of a new pavilion and docks.
By summer, everything will be done, and Taro 800 will be busy working somewhere else.