ON THE JOB

Towing the Line

The result of the combination of two familyowned businesses, Marquette Transportation Company is one of the nation’s largest providers of marine transportation services.

IF YOU SEE A TOWBOAT PUSHING A BARGE ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER, there’s a good chance it belongs to Marquette Transportation Company’s Gulf Inland Division. The division includes roughly 60 working vessels and employs approximately 500 people, including six port captains. One of those port captains, Jeffery Ellington, is seen here at work last month coiling a line on the St. Andrew towboat at Bollinger Quick Repair in Harvey. Marquette’s vessels can be found pushing barges packed with anything from grains and liquids to NASA components throughout the Southeast — from Brownsville, Texas to St. Mark’s, Florida and up to the Upper Mississippi River. MarquetteTrans.com n