Monday, May 31, 2021

CN/WC Bridges over Echo Lake in Burlington, WI

(no Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

I can't believe that Bridge Hunter doesn't have this bridge considering they do smaller bridges such as overpasses. Maybe this is the railroad equivalent of an Ugly Concrete Eyesore Bridge (UCEB). Bridge Hunter doesn't seem to allow them on their web site. But a bridge further south identifies this route as CN.
Street View

So why am I doing a UCEB post? Because CN is replacing the spans.
Brian Cazel posted
Looks like CN is going to do some major bridge work, at Echo Lake, in downtown Burlington, Wisconsin. Not only is the very large crane in position, there's a lot of equipment in play just off to the right. 4-24-21.

It looks like steel girders are getting replaced with precast concrete girders. Or maybe the new spans have steel girders that are freshly painted grey. Note the new spans are prebuilt with everything, including handrails. 
Screenshot @ 1:35/1:42

At 1:05 the crane starts sounding a periodic alarm. Brian indicates it is a warning alert that indicates the crane is doing a movement other than lifting straight up. Kind of like the beeping we now here when a vehicle with poor visibility backs up. The movement is so slow that it is hard to detect. I think he is lifting his boom to shorten the radius to make swinging the span over to the staging area safer.

Sunday, May 30, 2021

US-136 1936+1998 Scott W. Lucas Bridge over Illinois river at Havana, IL

(Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; John A. Weeks IIISatellite)

This is one of the many big truss bridges built during the 1930s. It was reconstructed in 1998. Scott Lucas was a US Senator from 1938 to 1950.

Photo taken by Fmiser in 2012 via Bridge Hunter, License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)

Street View

JohnWeeksIII

Jack Tanner Towing shared a Slim Whitmore post
SCOTT LUCAS BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION 1936

Jack Tanner Towing shared Mason County Democrat update
[I think that is one of Jack Tanner Towing's towboats.]
 
Jack Tanner Towing posted
Danny H. Northbound for a new day of work.
[Danny H is one of their towboats.]
Joan Jones: The river is a MIRROR! Makes the wake visible!

Jack Tanner Towing posted two photos with the comment: "Just finishing up tow work with the M/V Donna Rushing (ACBL) heading Northbound through the Havana Highway Bridge MM119.6 on the Illinois River."
Evan Houghton shared [This was the share that brought this bridge and Jack Tanner Towing to my attention.]
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Two photos posted by Jack Tanner Towing concerning the flood of 2013.
a

b
[The marker that is almost covered is 45'.]
Evan Houghton: Its the highest this bridge has ever seen.
 
Casey Dikkers posted
Havana, IL river bridge.

Jack Tanner Towing posted
Just our geese friends coming by to say hello.
 
Jack Tanner Towing posted
A little hazy this morning, but still a beautiful morning!! (M/V Christopher Myskowski from Marquette Transportation Southbound with 15 loaded barges)

Jack Tanner Towing posted
25.3 ft today (7-18-15). With no rise or fall this weekend in the forecast, we should start to see it start to fall by Monday. The river opened up yesterday to commercial traffic again from mile marker 30 to 80 (which had been closed for 3 days). With the summer towards a close there's a slight chance recreational traffic might see an opening in late July early August.

Jack Tanner Towing posted
River today (25.3 ft) compared to almost normal pool (around 7 ft)!

Jack Tanner Towing posted
Is it June or November? Hard to tell as many barges are being loaded! Nice and busy the past few weeks!

Jack Tanner Towing posted four photos with the comment: "Bridge inspections."
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4

Jack Tanner Towing shared RiverWorks Discovery post, cropped
Winter on the river is a difficult time for deck crew particularly. Hats 🎩 off to all of you who work so hard to keep commerce on the move in these difficult conditions! Photo courtesy of Captain
Ken Eaves
.

Jack Tanner Towing posted
Thanks to the ice, we've expanded our fleet to the center of the river as well!
 
Robert Learmont posted
M/V Killian L Huger, southbound on the Illinois River at Havana, IL. Those roots blown EMD mains sound nice. 1-4-2022.
 
Jack Tanner Towing posted, cropped
A little Foggy this morning.... Thanks for the picture Andrew Trello!


Michael Hertter posted, cropped
Havana il
[The now closed power plant is in the background.]
 
Jack Tanner Towing posted
Making Scott W. Lucas Memorial Bridge (Havana Highway Bridge)
[Transporting wind turbine blades]


A video showing a downbound tow going under the bridge on an angle.

A video of three men on a towboat touching the bridge as they go under it.












Saturday, May 29, 2021

1959 Port Allen Lock on canal in Port Allen, LA across from Baton Rouge

(Satellite)

This is one of the eight navigation locks on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.

Tom Waller posted
Port Allen lock wall under construction 1959. Photo by Morris Mabile

Obviously, the Mississippi River is higher than the canal. In fact, this area is like parts of the Netherlands --- it would be under water if not for a levee.
Street View

The 84' high lock has a lift of 45'. Incidentally, there are large fleets of barges on both sides of the Mississippi River downstream of Baton Rouge and the rake of the barge fleets present a very real danger to people travelling down the river by canoe or kayak. One can easily get pushed under the barges by the river's current! [rivergator]

Port of Greater Baton Rouge-Gallery
1965 Construction of the Port Allen Lock

Port of Greater Baton Rouge

Port of Greater Baton Rouge

Port of Greater Baton Rouge-Gallery
2000 First Container Barge through Port Allen Locks

Looking downstream, West

The lock is long and skinny. It doesn't make sense to handle tows wider than two barges because the canal itself is not wide enough for wider tows to pass each other. The Gulf Intercoastal Waterway was finished in 1949. This shortcut for barge traffic between the Mississippi River and the west side of the GIWW was finished in 1961. [USACE Brochure, p2] The brochure indicates the shortcut removes 160 miles from a tow's trip and West Baton Rouge Museum says it shortens the trip by 120 miles.

USACE-New Orleans District

Thank goodness for Google Search because I was unable to find useful information on this lock using the USACE web pages.
USACE Brochure, p1

USACE Brochure, p2

This image shows several tows waiting to lock through.
Marinas

emseal
In 2009 the locks had to be closed for four weeks to replace the expansion joint seals.

emseal
The joints had to be replaced because of "leak-induced water-related subsidence."

David Gulden posted two photos with the comment: "The VANPORT as i saw her a couple months ago a lil different then her TPT days."
David Dorrell
Hard working boats in the TPT days. D 379 Cats and loaded to an oversize permit for length, in the ditch.
1188 feet - repowered but never shoved as much since the TPT days.
Same barges, same waterway, what happened?
Wade Murphy
David Dorrell The Vanport also had a stainless steel stern and Kort Nozzles the sister boat the "Beverly Thomas " was open wheel with same Cat power. The crew also stripped and cleaned barges in tow as well. Many of the barges would split load multiple grades. They turned Baton Rouge every 10 days with the "Sara Jane" for Cairo where the two Ohio River boats "Walter Curly" and "Franklin Pierce" ran that leg.
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Street View

Friday, May 28, 2021

Stad Ship Tunnel in Norway

(Satellite, the tunnel would bore through this isthmus)

The mile-long tunnel will be big enough to allow cruise ships and ferries to take a shortcut along the coast of Norway. More significantly, it would allow the ships to avoid the rough seas around the Stadlandet Peninsula where 33 people have died since WWII. Sailing along the rest of the coast is safer because the little islands and fiords offer protection. The tunnel would be 120' high and 87' wide, blasted out of rock and cost $271m (2.3b Norwegian krone) [2017]. That is already more money than the tunnel is projected to earn. But the main selling points are convenience and safety.  [SmithsonianMag]

I used an overview to get a better feel for where it was.
Satellite

The yellow line indicates were they plan to dig it.
Satellite plus paint

Illustrasjon: Kystverket/Snøhetta/Plomp via Gallery via Norwegian Coastal Administration,  License: CC BY-SA 2.0
The estimated cost is up to 3.45b NOK.

If I remember correctly, most of the economic activity of Norway is along the coast and ferries are an important part of that economy because the fjords and mountains make it hard to connect the towns with roads and railroads.

Kystverket/Snøhetta/Plomp via B1M, License: CC BY-SA 2.0
"Costing over USD $300M and taking three-to-four years to complete."
It will shorten a two-hour trip down to 12 minutes. Even though the tunnel is being blasted out of rock, the roof will be reinforced with concrete for stability. There is a lot of local tunneling expertise because Norway has over 1000 road tunnels. Once the top layer is dug and cofferdams are installed at either end, it becomes a very horizontal quarry operation in terms of the type of equipment used and the reuse of the rock. The project is expected to take 3-4 years.

Extensive testing was done to determine that five ships an hour could use the tunnel with 400 meters between them.
 Anne Grethe Nilsen/Kystverket via B1M, License: CC BY-SA 2.0

Norwegian Coastal Administration/Snøhetta via B1M, License: CC BY-SA 2.0



11:43 video non-platitude information starts around 4:30