Weekly News Summary For August 30 – September 5, 2010:
After an initial hearing August 23, an Illinois federal judge has scheduled more hearings for expert testimony in a lawsuit filed by five Great lakes states against Illinois, asking for locks and waterways between the Chicago area and Lake Michigan to be closed. The next hearing will begin September 7.
Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and Pennsylvania filed the suit on July 19. One of the reasons the U.S. Supreme Court gave for twice rejecting previous lawsuits by the same states over the carp issue is that they had not properly tried their case in lower courts before resorting to the Supreme Court.
The states’ earlier suits invoked a decades-old water-sharing agreement between Illinois and other Great Lakes states. With that approach rejected, however, the states now argue that the locks and dams operated by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constitute a “public nuisance” because they create a risk of Asian carp infiltrating into the Great Lakes.
The suit asks the Corps to complete a study in 18 months of ways to restore barriers between the Chicago waterways and the Great Lakes that existed before a massive waterways project a century ago that connected the two systems. Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said in a news release, “In the short term, we want certain locks closed, effective barriers created to prevent continued fish migration, and Asian carp killed that have already passed the barrier system. Long term, we think the best solution is the one nature once provided: the physical separation (of) the Great Lakes basin and the Mississippi River systems.”…
The Tri-City Regional Port District, Granite City, Ill., held a groundbreaking ceremony August 23 to celebrate the $6 million TIGER grant award that will fund the construction of a new rail loop at the port, and eventually contribute to a new intermodal freight transportation hub.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) were on hand for the ceremony, along with leaders and tenants from the port district and dozens of other area civic and business leaders.
TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grants are a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). In September 2009, the Tri-City Regional Port District applied to receive one of these grants from the U.S. Maritime Administration to help fund construction of the planned intermodal hub and connecting rail lines. The $6 million awarded will fund not only the South Rail Loop, but also 10 levee relief wells that are integral elements of the new hub.
“The TIGER grant was critical in getting this overall project off the ground, but the individual projects moving forward at this time each have independent utility that will benefit our existing tenants,” said Charles King Jr., chairman of the Tri-City Regional Port District. “Looking to the future, the work getting underway today will provide a foundation which will support the anticipated near-term development of our comprehensive intermodal hub, a project which will create a number of new jobs and significantly advance our region’s role as a prime Midwest logistics center.”
Costello also highlighted the port’s role as a job-creating engine for the region, noting that the port’s River’s Edge development has more private-sector jobs than there were government jobs during the site’s previous incarnation as the Army Support Center….
The river community is a small world, we know. But how small? According to a famous experiment that became the title of a play and film, everyone on earth is connected by no more than “six degrees of separation.”
How many degrees of acquaintance separate river people? Three? Two?
On July 11, 1953, a small item appeared in The Waterways Journal:
“Ernest Atkins, crew member of an unidentified towboat, gave his life in an unsuccessful attempt to save the lives of three persons thrown into the Ohio River when a pleasure boat overturned in the towboat’s waves on July 4 near Sturgis, Ky.”
Actually, says Velma Jean Edmondson Owen, the boat didn’t overturn, although it did “flip” on its side before settling down again. Jean (as she was and is known) was 10 years old at the time, sitting in the pleasure craft’s bow. The accident happened at Mile 872 on the Ohio River, near Caseyville, Ky.
After Jean, her mother and brother were pitched out of the boat by the violent wake, her father jumped in to save them—only to drown himself. Jean says she remembers looking down in the water and seeing her mother’s hair waving below her. Her mother was six months pregnant….
The Nashville Engineer District recently announced a change in lockage procedures at Chickamauga Lock, Tennessee River Mile 471.0, for both commercial and recreational vessels.
“With the completion of the lower cofferdam for the new lock, navigation conditions in the lower approach of Chickamauga Lock have changed considerably and warrant modifications to the existing lockage procedures,” said Ray Bess, navigations branch, operations division.
“The top of the cofferdam extends to approximately elevation 662, which is 28 feet above the normal tailwater level of elevation 634. The massive size and height of the structure has created severe visibility issues for both upbound and downbound traffic,” Bess added.
The emergency cofferdam construction followed the discovery in 2007 that substandard concrete in the old cofferdam was eroding faster than normal. Money for the repairs was appropriated by Congress in 2008….
Marine Builders Inc., Utica, Ind., recently delivered the mv. Safety Star, the third in a series of six boats ordered by J. Russell Flowers Inc. for lease to AEP River Operations fleet. Identical to several similar “Safety” boats constructed by B & B Boatbuilders in Bayou la Batre, Ala., the boats from Marine Builders are 70 by 28 feet and are powered with a pair of Caterpillar 3508 diesel engines.
The Safety Star passed Golconda, Ill., in tow of the Caleb Lay on August 17 for delivery to Cairo, Ill., where it was to be placed in a tow heading down the Lower Mississippi River. The vessels are designed for use in AEP’s bustling Convent, La., fleeting operations and are also running along the GIWW.
Two of the remaining three boats on order will be rated at 2,000 hp. and all are scheduled for delivery by the end of October, according to David A. Evanczyk, company president. The next two boats to be delivered will be named the Safety Goal and Safety Voyager.
Also nearing completion during this writer’s recent visit was another Cat-powered vessel: the Patriot, a 56- by 22- by 8-1/2-foot twin-screw harbor and shift boat for the Tennessee Valley Authority. The 1,200 hp. boat is powered by a pair of Caterpillar C-18, Tier II diesels and will be assigned to the Cumberland City, Tenn., power plant at Cumberland River Mile 103.5. Although similar to many dinner-bucket boats delivered during the company’s 30-year history, the Patriot is the first in a new series with a new stern design to reduce vibration, according to Evanczyk,
“The idea is to improve vibration issues to produce a very smooth boat with high horsepower in a small hull,” he explained….
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