Google Barges Grounded, Ground Up

Under construction in 2013 (Examiner photo)

The "secretive" barge project that Google has been working on for at least four years has been put on hold due to fire safety concerns [bold added]:

“These vessels will have over 5,000 gallons of fuel on the main deck and a substantial amount of combustible material on board,” wrote Robert Gauvin, the Coast Guard’s acting chief of commercial vessel compliance.[snip]

Google had previously said the barges, located of the Maine coast and in San Francisco Bay, were to be “an interactive space where people can learn about technology.” The West Coast barge was eventually moved out to storage 80 miles away, while the Maine barge was dismantled and scrapped.

The Coast Guard is doing its job, but the people at Google aren't idiots. They know that Google would be liable for multi-millions, even billions, of dollars in monetary damages were an accident to happen in San Francisco Bay, not to mention the attendant bad publicity. Too bad, because I would have loved to visit a Google barge and would have happily signed a waiver. (BTW, to put the fuel hazard in perspective, over 500 planes with full fuel tanks take off each day from San Francisco Airport; one of the smaller commercial jets, the 737, takes off with at least 5,000 gallons.)

[Update (11/11) - Gotta hand it to them, they never stop trying. Google Leases NASA's Moffett Field, Historic Hangar for $1.2 Billion:

A Google subsidiary will lease a NASA facility in California's Bay Area for $1.16 billion over the next 60 years, agency officials announced Monday.....The company will refurbish all three hangars and use them as research facilities in an attempt to develop new technologies in space exploration, robotics and other high-tech fields, NASA officials said.] © 2014 Stephen Yuen