The Waterways Journal

Several news sources called this spectacular demolition an “implosion”—but it was definitely an explosion!

The 84-year-old bridge had once provided a main link between West Virginia and Ohio. A parallel bridge was built several years ago. A local news station reported that one pier will be retained and incorporated into a $250,000 observation platform.

While the U.S. is enjoying an unusually mild winter, cold is gripping Europe—especially eastern Europe. The recently frozen Danube now is coping with hundreds of blocks of floating ice.

The city of Tulsa recently made a “top ten” list of goals. At the top of the list is river and port development.

The St. Louis Engineer District, on its River Engineering page, has a fascinating computer-modeled video of St. Louis Harbor, showing a bathymetric survey of the Mississippi River bottom. Different colors represent different channel depths, and you can see the effects of various river training structures on the navigation channel, particularly the chevron dikes at the upper end of the harbor. Here’s a link to the video on YouTube:

St. Louis Harbor Fly-Through

The Marietta Times reminds its readers of the importance of bulk river traffic.

Louisiana Sen. A.G. Crowe has a plant to attract foreign investors to a proposed $1 billion container terminal at the mouth of the Mississippi River—but one local paper demurs.

The American Press, an “e-paper,” advocates immediate passage of the RAMP Act.

“Spend $110 million this year or lose $9.2 billion worth of cargo. That’s a choice the nation faces as a result of the silt build-up in Louisiana’s Mississippi River… if Mississippi River dredging was funded at the level officials say is needed, the return on that investment would be 8,363 percent. How can you argue that investment isn’t worth making?”

From the Environmental Defense Fund, a look at how the Mississippi River is key in exports to China.

According to Western Farm Press, our waterways are a “ticking time bomb.”

The U.S. is on track to meet President Obama’s five-year goal of doubling exports.