Salvage Crew Begins Raising Sunken Tiki Barge From The Ohio River

A crane and a diver are being used to recover the sunken section of Riverwatch Restaurant in Lawrenceburg.

A section of the dock from the sunken tiki barge at Riverwatch Restaurant was lifted out of the water on Tuesday, August 14. Photo by Chuck Folop.

(Lawrenceburg, Ind.) - A sunken barge is being brought up from the bottom of the Ohio River.

The tiki bar barge, a section of the Riverwatch Restaurant in Lawrenceburg sank last April. On Tuesday, the accompanying dock sections were raised from the depths.

A salvage crew arrived at Riverwatch on a large floating platform equipped with a crane. A diver was underwater prepping pieces to be pulled up.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has given the barge owner and the City of Lawrenceburg a hard deadline of September 14 to have the barge brought out of the water.

Restaurant and barge owner Mike Rauen said he is paying $90,000 for the removal.

“At least it is being removed now,” he told Eagle Country 99.3 Tuesday.

A diver emerges from the Ohio River. Photo by Chuck Folop.

Rauen, who purchased the barge from the city just months before the sinking, went to Lawrenceburg Common Council earlier this month seeking help in paying for the barge’s removal.

As the permit holder for the on-the-water restaurant barge, the city has an interest in removing the barge. Mayor Kelly Mollaun said he was told by the Corps that the permit could be canceled if the barge was not out by mid-September.

Rauen told Eagle Country 99.3 Tuesday that he is paying his own way to remove the barge. That course will allow him to avoid a potential breach of contract with the city.

“At the meeting with city council, it ran haywire there. I said I’m not going to mess with this. I talked to the mayor the next day and I said I’m going to get the money together,” Rauen shared.

He said he wanted to avoid having the city’s taxpayers pay the cost of the removal.

Rauen explained that the tiki barge is partially submerged beneath the main barge still afloat with about 18 inches of clearance between the two. While that presents a challenge to the salvage crew, Rauen said, the entire sunken barge could be removed from the water by this weekend.

Rauen previously said that he hired an investigator to help determine what caused the tiki barge to sink on April 8. He has not disclosed what cause, if any, has been pinpointed.

The larger, main barge of the restaurant has remained afloat, allowing Rauen’s popular business to continue operating this summer.

RELATED STORIES:

Sunken Barge Could Sink Business, Riverfront Plans If Not Recovered Soon