Tidewater Barge Lines Inc.

Tidewater Barge Lines Inc., a for-profit marine transportation and logistics provider, operates as a subsidiary of Tidewater Holdings, Inc., and sells barge freight services, ship repair, and specialized maritime support services to the Army Corps of Engineers, the Defense Logistics Agency, the Military Sealift Command, and the Maritime Administration as a prime contractor competing on full-and-open federal awards without set-aside designation.

Tidewater Barge Lines Inc. specializes in inland water freight transportation along the Columbia River and Snake River corridors, with a core business model anchored to barge operations, vessel towing, and ship repair. The vendor holds a $2 million single-award Basic Ordering Agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (executed July 1, 2026, running through June 30, 2029) for master ship repair services; activity under that BOA includes a $374,195 delivery order from the Defense Logistics Agency's Portland office for emergency drydock services on the Yaquina, completed in July 2026. The vendor also serves the Military Sealift Command on waste removal contracts, including a $13,057 purchase order for foreign trash removal (completed January 2024) and an $8,873 purchase order for trash removal support to USS John Canley (completed September 2023).

Customer concentration sits heavily with Army Corps of Engineers organizations. The top five federal customers account for 81% of recent awards by count, led by the Army Corps of Engineers' Walla Walla Engineering District (9 awards, $75 thousand combined potential value) and the Army Corps of Engineers proper (5 awards, $2 million combined potential value). The potential-value ranking diverges sharply from the award-count ranking: the Army Corps of Engineers' $2 million in combined dollars substantially exceeds the Walla Walla District's $75 thousand despite the latter's higher award frequency, indicating that Corps awards to Tidewater lean toward larger individual orders. Secondary customers include the Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers' Portland Engineering District, and the Navy's Military Sealift Command, with minimal exposure to the Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security.

Tidewater Barge Lines Inc. is also a recipient of federal maritime infrastructure grants from the Maritime Administration. The vendor received a $990,000 Project Grant under the United States Marine Highway Grants program (CFDA 20.816) in September 2025 to acquire a Tier 4 diesel container handler for deployment at its Vancouver, Washington terminal, supporting expanded barge service between Vancouver and the Port of Morrow, Oregon along Marine Highway 84. The vendor also received a $5.835 million grant from the Maritime Administration's Port Infrastructure Development Program (CFDA 20.823) in December 2024 for the purchase and installation of an electric dock crane in Vancouver and acquisition of a low-emissions mobile crawler crane in Boardman, Oregon, with completion targeted for November 2029. A third Maritime Administration Project Grant from October 2022 funded procurement of a new barge capable of handling 40-foot and 48-foot containers, with ultimate completion March 31, 2027.

Activity has been minimal and flat — one award in 2022, one in 2023, two in 2024, one in 2025, and two in 2026 — with only two awards reaching ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months and facing recompete risk. The vendor competes exclusively on full-and-open federal procurement, holds no SBA set-aside designations, and operates as a pure prime across all federal awards with zero subcontract exposure.