Monday, April 11, 2022

1983 Bay Springs (Jamie L. Whitten) Lock & Dam on the Tenn-Tom Waterway

(Satellite)

The reservoir of this lock & dam extends upstream (North) to the Divide Cut of the Tenn-Tom Waterway. It is the first of 10 locks to go down from the Tennessee River to the Gulf of Mexico.

Wikiwand
"The lock is the fourth-highest single lift lock in the United States, and raises and lowers barges 84 feet (26 m)."

Nashville District posted
This is an aerial photo of Bay Springs Dam and Lock taken in September 1983 in Dennis, Mississippi, as the project neared completion. When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District completed the dam it formed a 6,600-acre lake that joined the divide cut canal that connects with the Tennessee River. The Nashville District dedicated the 27-mile divide section of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway and Bay Springs Dam and Lock May 6, 1984. The project was later renamed the Jamie L. Whitten Dam and Lock.
During construction of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District and Nashville District were able to coordinate and obligate more than $100 million each year, a huge amount in the 1970s and 80s, and complete the waterway in 12 years at a total cost of $2 billion. In the end, the two districts, 125 prime contractors and 1,200 subcontractors worked on the overall waterway. The 10 locks and five dams required a total of 2.2 million cubic yards of concrete and 33,000 tons of reinforcing steel. The Corps excavated nearly 310 million cubic yards of soil during the 12-year project.  In comparison, 210-million cubic yards of earth were removed from the Panama Canal.
Secretary of the Army John O. Marsh Jr. and Governor Wallace presided over the dedication of the entire waterway June 1, 1985 in Columbus, Mississippi, which symbolically merged the waters of 23 states and linked them to the Gulf of Mexico.

Pickwick Lock shared
Jay Piovarcy: The first commercial tow was by Waxler Towing out of Memphis who went from Mobile to Sheffield AL.
Jan 1985 Damon Waxler

Looking at a satellite image, I could not find an emergency spillway for this earth dam. Then I remembered that this dam is near the divide between the Tennessee River and the Gulf of Mexico. Essentially, its watershed is just its reservoir, and that won't collect much water during a rain.
Street View

Street View

2:27 timelapse video @ 0:34






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