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John A. Weeks III,
Satellite)
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David Jordan shared
Peoria Lock and Dam will close for 60 days in 2020 (the linked article has more photos)
This could create some interesting alternatives for rail-barge traffic in the area. If nothing else, ADM’s Cedar Rapids plants will temporarily cease routing distillers mash and/or gluten feed pellets to ADM Grain Co. docks on Wesley Road via the Iowa Interstate. I suppose they could send this traffic to alternate area locations such as CHS at Pekin or to the American Milling Co.-operated dock at Crystal Lake.
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Tim Freitag posted
It's a core rig named Hercules.
[According to the comments Hercules is a Manatowoc 4600 on a 60' ringer mounted on a barge. There is controversy as to weather or not the counterweights slide. Normally they stay at the end on a ringer. But since this is mounted on a barge, sliding coutnerweights would make sense.]
Dennis DeBruler Deron Manseau I looked through my notes and found an image with no load on the hook. The counterweights are still fully extended over the ring. http://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/Media/Images.aspx... |
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| Mike Weaver commented on Tim Freitag's posting |
Jack Tanner Towing
posted eight photos with the comment: "The M/V Danny H. Took a little trip North over the weekend for some maintenance. Here she is Southbound making lock!" (Jack Tanner Towing is based in Havana, IL.)
[He caught the river with the wicket gates up. Photo 6 is a particularly good view of the gates.]
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It was hard finding the visitor center for this dam. I wanted to see this dam because it is one of the few wicket gate dams left in America. It had a sign on the fence that was rather confusing about what was allowed inside. But the gate was partially open, so we parked at the visitor center. Cameras were a definite no-no. While I was walking around, a person soon walked over from the office building. He informed me that people are not allowed inside the fence. The gate was partially open because it was broke. So we left. Both sides of the downstream river are lined with forests so it is impossible to get views from the river side. John Weeks did what I thought about doing --- getting pictures as I go across the I-474 bridge.
I made a copy of the Google image because it caught the Illinois River with a high flow so that the wicket gates are down. This allows the tows to use the river channel instead of the lock making passage by the dam much faster. Since the lock chamber is not used during high water, that is where they are parking the tender that raises and lowers the gates. The Tainter gate would be wide open.
I made a copy of the birds-eye view because it not only caught the river at low flow with the wickets up, it caught a downstream tow going through the lock. The 15-barge tow indicates the lock is just 600' because the tow had to lock through as two parts. The Tainter gate was installed so that fine flow adjustments can be made to maintain a consistent pool height.
Of interest is that there were at least two more tows waiting upstream to use the lock. Note the "helper" towboat against the second barge on the starboard side to help guide the tow.
About a half mile upstream is another tow waiting its turn. Note the coal train on the TZPR/PPU tracks.
Given this traffic jam of downstream tows, I looked below the dam to see if there were any upstream tows waiting for the lock. I did not find any. Two 15-barge tows waiting to go through the lock when the lock can only handle half a tow illustrates how important it is to lower the wicket gates during high water so that the lock is not needed.
USACE
posted three photos with the comment:
Maintenance and inspections continue at Peoria Lock and Dam near Creve Coeur, Illinois, as part of the 2020 Illinois Waterway Consolidated Lock Closures. Built around the 1930's, these lock systems have withstood the test of time and are getting much needed repairs performed during these closures. #ILWW2020Closures
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While looking for a grain elevator, I noticed that the satellite image shows why they sometimes want to put the wickets down and allow the boats to bypass the lock.
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safe_image for 'An incredible system': 1930s-era Peoria Lock and Dams included in $829 million for waterway improvements
Most of this money is going for an expansion of the 600' lock to a 1200' lock at the Mississippi L&D #25. It will also pay for a fish passage north of Quincy.
"Currently, the process of locking through a 600-foot chamber can take up to four to six hours, Wilkins said. 'One lockage in a nice 1200-foot chamber, you do the same operation within 30, 40, 50 minutes,' he said."
Gerald Jerry Riesenberg: It does not take 4-6 hours to lock through a 600 ft chamber 2 times !!! I rode those boats for 12 years on the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers and made hundreds of double lockings. It can be done in roughly 2 hours, maybe 2 1/2.
[I've watched double-lockings, and it can be done significantly faster than 4-6 hours.]
Del Wilkins is president of the Illinois Marine Waterway Association. Is he deliberately exaggerating the lock time or is a person in that position really that ignorant? Either way, his error is disconcerting because exaggerating by that much is effectively a lie. |
Sure is neat how it folds down
With the trend of having live cams at lock and dams, it would be great to see one here as well. Having navigation all year long, they might think about enlarging it to accommodate longer barge traffic, also.
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