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City's newest floating classroom is on its way

City's newest floating classroom is on its way

Explorer a $3.5 million state-of-the-art floating classroom built for the not-for-profit science education organization RiverQuest, has started its long-delayed journey to its home dock on Pittsburgh's North Shore.

Launched yesterday from the Freeport, Fla., boat yard where it was built, the 90-foot vessel is scheduled to make the trip up the Tombigbee River, then to the Tennessee River and the Ohio River.

Powered by a new hybrid diesel-electric propulsion system, and built using environmentally friendly materials, windows, coatings and paints, the boat is designed to be the flagship vessel in RiverQuest's river ecosystem education program. It can accommodate 90 students for classes and up to 150 passengers for public tours.

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"Explorer represents a truly significant paradigm shift in environmental education," said Karl Thomas, RiverQuest executive director, who is aboard the boat. "It is a tangible demonstration of our new Sustainability Education program and it reflects the 'leading edge' nature of our mission."

Mr. Thomas said Explorer is a one-of-a-kind vessel with "extraordinary on-board technology that supports exploration and learning."

The boat's propulsion system, built by Siemens, uses a bank of on-board batteries or a diesel engine fueled by a low-emission biodiesel mixture that contains up to 20 percent animal or vegetable biofuel. That combination will allow Explorer to cut energy consumption in half and significantly reduce greenhouse gas and toxic air emissions, including soot, sulfur dioxides and carbon monoxide.

Retrofitting the propulsion system in the future to add solar, hydro and fuel cell technologies also will be possible.

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But it was that new propulsion technology that caused a seven-month delay in the delivery of the boat, because of problems with the engine and gears, and subsequent delays in attaining the seaworthiness certification required by the Coast Guard.

RiverQuest changed its name in September from Pittsburgh Voyager. It has operated a two-boat classroom fleet from the Ohio River dock behind the Carnegie Science Center on the North Shore since 1995, providing floating field trips to more than 60,000 grade school and high school students from 65 school districts in 11 Western Pennsylvania counties.

More than 10,000 students a year are expected to board Explorer.


Correction/Clarification: (Published Mar. 10, 2007) This story as originally published Mar. 9 2007 about the Explorer, RiverQuest's new classroom boat, incorrectly stated its water route from the Florida shipyard where it was built to Pittsburgh. The boat is traveling up the Tombigbee River, then to the Tennessee River and the Ohio River.

First Published: March 9, 2007, 5:00 a.m.

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