These are notes that I am writing to help me learn our industrial history. They are my best understanding, but that does not mean they are a correct understanding.
USACE Pittsburgh District posted two photos with the comment:
Happy Monday, folks! Today, let's explore a key feature of the Ohio River - the Pike Island Lock and Dam, an essential component of our regional waterways.
📍 Situated 84 miles downstream of Pittsburgh, this is the fifth lock and dam on the Ohio River, placed strategically near Wheeling, WV.
🏗️ Historical Background:
- Construction Era: The locks were built from 1959 to 1963, with the dam's construction following from 1962 to 1965.
- The Pike Island Lock and Dam replaced the older Locks and Dams 10 and 11, constructed between 1904 and 1916. These earlier structures had smaller lock chambers with manually operated wooden wicket dams.
📏 Lock Specifications:
- The main lock, catering to commercial barge traffic, measures an impressive 1,200 feet in length and 110 feet in width.
- There's also an auxiliary lock, which is 600 feet long and 110 feet wide, serving additional navigation needs.
🌊 Engineering Significance:
- This modern facility not only streamlined river traffic but also brought advanced and automated control over the river's depth and flow, replacing the manual efforts required in the older dam designs.
As we start our week, let's appreciate the blend of historical significance and modern engineering that Pike Island Lock and Dam represents, a testament to our region's growth and technological advancement.
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It has its own Facebook group. Eric Ritter posted four photos:
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3 [Unfortunately, he has not yet learned how to turn his phone.]
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To put the following video in perspective, I believe in the first part the water is flowing over the weir to the left.
(new window) I wish he got a clip of the gates with the river flow at the level of the first clip. I would like to see what position they were in.
“All of our power plants up and down the river use the water to generate power,” Hastings said. “The coal moves to the power plants that generate the heat with the coal. They use water from the river to generate steam to turn the turbines.” (Hastings is the lockmaster.) [ReviewOnline]
The first statement sounds like they use hydroelectric plants. But what he meant is that they use 15-barge tows to supply the coal to the power plants. I'm sure the last statement is just wrong. They use water from the river to cool (condense) the steam. The steam is generated by coal-fired boilers. The article also says that the river would dry up in the summer if there were no dams. That means any hydroelectric plants along the river won't run near their rated capacity in the Summer. In terms of recreation, Hastings mentions fishermen but not birders.
To put into perspective the dry peoriods, several sources indicate that you could walk across the river. An example source:
nkytribune Before dams were built on the Ohio, you could walk across the entire width of the river in periods of dry weather.
Just because the towboat drivers make it look easy doesn't mean it is.
Some of the barges in a 6-barge tow ran aground on the downstream side when this tow tried to get out of the way of another tow going through the lock.
WVpress
Only the coal can be seen atop of this sinking barge on Monday between the Pike Island Locks and Dam and Martins Ferry, Ohio, near Wheeling. (Intelligencer photo by Shelley Hanson)
A proposal for a $200m, 6-turbine hydroelectric plant that would generate 48MW is being pursued for the Ohio side of the dam. ($4.17m/MW) It would be on the Ohio side to minimize the impact on the navigation channel. The CEO of Pike Island Energy claims it would reduce people's electric bill by 20 percent. "In 2014, American Municipal Power considered building a hydroelectric power plant at the Pike Island Locks and Dam, but eventually dropped the project. However, that company opened generating units at the Willow Island Lock and Dam in Pleasants County, W.Va. last year." [TheIntelligencer] The 2014 license said a 40MW powerhouse would generate 200,000 MWhours. [HydroWorld] But I don't know over what period it would generate those 200,000 MWhours. Let's assume a year. So if the river had a full flow all year long, it could generate 24*365*40 = 350,400 MWhours. Thus an interval of a year tor the 200,000 MWhours seems reasonable. I think my retail rate is about 7 cents/KWhour. (ComEd makes it pretty hard to figure out what my kwh rate is by including things like a "capacity charge" in the bill.) I'm going to assume that the wholesale rate is 3 cents. The new proposal is for 8 more MW. But that doesn't mean the river's flow is that much more. So I'll stick with 200,000 as a ballpark estimate. So that plant would earn 200,000,000*3 = $6m a year. So the cost of the plant would be paid back in 200/6=33.3 years. When you are talking MWs, every penny counts. If I had assumed 4 cents/KWhour, the payoff period for $200m is 25 years. I think a hydropower plant is supposed to be able to run for 40 years without major repairs.
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