Weekly News Summary For May 11-17, 2009:
Advocates of the inland waterways got a dose of unusual good news when the Army Corps of Engineers announced its list of projects that got grants from a $4.8 billion grant under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) for waterways project on April 29.
In just one example, the Kaskaskia Navigation System received $11.8 million above and beyond regular appropriations. The Kaskaskia drains several counties in southern Illinois, joining the Mississippi about 40 miles south of St. Louis. The extra money will go to channel improvements, help upgrade operating equipment, and replace an emergency generator and failed miter gate springs.
Paul Rohde, midwest vice president of the Waterways Council Inc., is certainly grateful. “This starts to make up for the shortfall that the Kaskaskia system has been experiencing for decades,” he said.
He just hopes the public doesn’t get the wrong idea from the burst of money. “You have to put this in the context of decades of under-funding,” he told The Waterways Journal. He points out that the emergency stimulus money will go for things that should normally be taken care of in regular operations and maintenance expenses.
“We’ve been in a situation for a long time where things that should have been covered in regular operation and maintenance funds have kept slipping over into emergency rehabilitation. The stimulus is great, but what we need is a solution in the regular funding process.”
As river levels rose throughout the lower Midwest, the Coast Guard activated the Louisville, Ky., Vessel Traffic Service on the Ohio River between Twelve Mile Island at Mile 593 and McAlpine Lock & Dam at Mile 606. The VTS is triggered when water levels on the upper gauge of the McAlpine Dam reach 13 feet, and will stay activated until the water falls below that level.
Restrictions applied to towing vessels of 26 feet or more in length, passenger vessels certified to carry 50 or more passengers, and recreational vessels 65 feet or more in length. Affected vessels must check in with the Louisville VTS and comply with all directions. The VTS broadcasts safety and traffic information on marine band VHF-FM Channel 13 (156.650 MHz).
On the Red River, strong currents were reported near Alexandria, La. Lock and Dam 1, also known as the Lindy C. Boggs Lock and Dam, will close for scheduled repairs on Monday, April 11, at 10:00 a.m. It will remain closed until Wednesday May 13, also at 10:00 a.m. The lock needs cylinders and hydraulic lines replaced….
Guttenberg, Iowa, owes a lot to the Mississippi River. The town of about 2,000 sits in Iowa’s northeast corner, at Mile 615, near Lock 10. River traffic made Guttenberg an important regional center until railroads and roads decreased its importance as a transportation hub.
The river brought immigrants who made Guttenberg (named after the inventor of movable type) a mostly German town by the time of the Civil War. Nearby bluffs supplied limestone that went into its public buildings built in the expanding 1860s.
The river was also where Scott Nelson made his livelihood.
“He started his career on the river as a teenager, spending summers with his Dad, the late Capt. Gordon Nelson,” said his sister, Becky Nelson. Gordon Nelson was a captain with Mid-American Transportation and Mid-South who died in an auto accident in 1990, Becky said….
Logsdon Tug Service has a piece of history docked at its headquarters at Illinois River Mile 80 in Beardstown, Ill.
The firm recently purchased the two steam-powered “wicket boats” that were used to raise and lower the wickets at LaGrange and Peoria Dams on the Illinois. The Corps of Engineers replaced the vessels—officially called “maneuver boats”—with newer, safer, diesel-powered versions, and declared the old boats surplus.
Kim Logsdon, owner of Logsdon Tug, saw an opportunity to buy some vintage equipment and bought both boats. The firm has already dismantled one of the boats and put the machinery to work in its related river construction business, Elmer Logsdon River Construction Company.
But before he does the same with the other boat, he wants to see if there is anyone who might want to preserve the boat and restore it, possibly as a floating museum that would give visitors a glimpse at what the river business was like when the industry was powered by steam.
Beardstown is located between the LaGrange and Peoria dams, the only two wicket dams on the Illinois River. (There are only two other such dams on the inland waterways: dams 52 and 53 on the lower Ohio River. The Ohio River wicket dams are slated to be replaced by Olmsted Lock and Dam, which will also have wickets.)…
The Inland Rivers Ports and Terminals association (IRPT) convened in Chicago, Ill., on April 29 through May 1 for its annual meeting. The event was held at the historic Drake Hotel.
Some of the highlights of the 2009 meeting included:
• A presentation by Ron Coles of W.R. Coles and Associates on the feasibility of container-on-barge traffic on the inland rivers. With the pending expansion of the Panama Canal as well as other economic factors, Coles believes that containers could become as commonplace on the rivers in the future as they currently are in Europe. It is a “matter of when, not if,” said Coles.
• Jim Farrell, executive director, Infrastructure Council, Illinois Chamber of Commerce, shared recent successes in communicating the benefits of the waterways. Since the council was founded in 2003, it has been busy surveying voters and communicating the needs of the industry to media outlets. “We believe the waterways are the [transportation] industry’s future,” said Farrell. The key is raising public awareness, he said….
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