Marseilles Dam

Update: July 14, 2015 views when the river was at stage 19. (Flood Stage is 20.)

My postings on the Marseilles Dam accident, The Force of Outdraft, and the NTSB report made me wonder what the dam looked like now, so I made a trip to Marseilles. The road bridge includes a bike trail on the dam side so it was easy to get downstream elevations. The bridge has one of the best handrails I have seen so far. (It is amazing how much of a connoisseur of handrails you become when walking out on bridges that are about 100 feet above ground/water to take pictures. Some handrails are too high and you have to shoot through a chain-link fence. Others are too low. The champion unsafe bridge is the Warrenville Bridge built by the Tollway Authority.)

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Since the "temporary" cofferdam is still there, the are using just 3 of the eight gates. This is probably the only dam in the country that has some gates almost wide open while others are completely shut. The gates are numbered from the right and we can see that gates 2 and 3 still have their bulkheads installed. (They had one bulkhead available because it is needed for standard maintenance activity. The second bulkhead had to be made as an emergency after the accident.)


Evidently the cofferdam has been allowed to erode on the left side because I assume the interior was originally dry.

 

The temporary repair of the Tainter gate trunnion mounting block is done.

But why do 10 million dollars of temporary repairs to make the gates operational again, and then not use them?

It looks like I should have made another trip on July 2. I found the following data in http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/river.php?wfo=lot&wfoid=18773&riverid=204597&pt[]=143526&allpoints=144857%2C143526%2C146761%2C144407%2C144258&data[]=all. The times are UTC.

The max flow during the past couple of weeks:  07/02 13:00   465.97 ft  41.7 kcfs.

The oldest data on the page was:  06/29 00:00   462.53 ft  25.1 kcfs.

I took the above pictures on 06/27.

The river is currently:  07/08 19:30   460.55 ft   12.4 kcfs.

So they must have had to open gate 6 all the way and done something with gate 5 and maybe even 4 to allow 41.7 kcfs to flow through the dam. And the cofferdam must have been under water because the water is near the top in my pictures.

The upstream view is more interesting than usual because of the bulkheads in gates 2 and 3 and the three open gates. (And, I'll admit, because of the ducks. These ducks are in the forebay of the north millrace.)

I took a closeup of the open gates because I don't often get a chance to photograph a dam when the river has a strong current.

I digitally zoomed in on the pier between gates 6 and 7 to determine that the control equipment must use windlasses to spool in 4 cables that are attached to the bottom of each end of a gate.

This dam must need frequent flow adjustments because an electric motor is dedicated to each gate. Some dams use a traveling crane to raise and lower the gates. A shaft across the top of the gate allows an electric motor to drive both windlasses.

I also got a closeup of the open gates from the downstream side because, again, I don't often get a chance to see such a good view of a heavy flow.

And a closeup of the flow at the edge of the river because the "valley" was a standing wave. That is, the "hole" in the water just this side of the tree stayed there.

I'm glad to see that the river edge was concrete lined. A flow that heavy for weeks could normally cause a lot of erosion and scouring. Unlike many river beds, which would be sediments of clay/sand/muck, the river bed here is probably bedrock because it is the head of a rapids; and the rapids would have scoured the sediments away many millennia ago.

Chuck Edmonson posted three photos with the comment: "A view of both sides, both up and down river at the Marseilles Dam on the Illinois River near Main Street."

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Marseilles South Millrace

The red line in the following satellite image marks the remnants of the south millrace in Marseilles. Note that this image was taken before the Spring of 2013 because the cofferdam built to repair the dam is not present.

The yellow lines indicates what the full extent of the headrace might have been according to this 1911 map. And the blue line indicates the original tailrace, about half of which is still present.

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And this 1925 aerial photo also indicates there was probably a headrace along the river because of the building that are along the river.

http://www.marseillesil.net/PhotoHistory.html

The following pictures are in the order that the water would flow through the millrace.

When the Army Corps of Engineers built the Marseille Dam, they also built a new control structure at the entrance of the millraces. But the view of the south control gate is blocked by the control gates for the north millrace. The metal structures between the little red building and the big tree would be the top of south gates. This photo also provides a good view of the 4-foot dike that the Corps built on top of the levee after the 2013 flood. The building in the background behind the tree is the abandoned 8-story Nabisco carton factory. We will see more of that building as we follow the millrace through town.

Our next access point is the Main Street bridge over the headrace.
Upstream and...

...downstream we see the old 8-story Nabisco plant that I had mentioned.

If you look closely on the left at the end of the cattails and below the roof you will see the top of the following control gates.

This picture is taken from the south side of the downstream side. Note that only one of the rack & pinion controlled gates still has its wheel and that it is the only one that is open. I took a closeup of the open gate because it is an excellent example of a sluice gate. It looks like the gates may be boards in a metal frame.

It is interesting to compare the above overview picture with one that John Weeks III took in 2008:

John Weeks III

Specifically, note that the walkway and handrail were still intact in 2008. And his view of the headrace shows that it contained water back then and still had two bridges.

John Weeks III

From the other side of the control structure...

...I turned 180 degrees to take a picture of a vacant lot. You can see the walls of the tailrace beyond the concrete floor of an old plant.

I was looking for holes in the floor where a water wheel below may have been connected to equipment above. I'm still confused how plants used water power in the early 20th century. They were evidently still using it because W. D. Boyce rebuilt the dam and millraces in 1900 or 1903. Did each plant have their own turbine and generator? Or were they still using water wheels, power shafts, and leather belts?

Turning about 45 degrees to my right, we see a remnant wall of the plant that used to be here.

And turning some more, we see the cable controlled sluice gate that used to control the water being used by this plant. (The tree on the right of the above picture is the tree on the left of the below picture. I guess remnants being overgrown by nature is a plus as well as a minus.)

Since the rest of the south headrace has been filled in to make room for the Illinois Valley Cellular headquarters building and Middle East Conflicts Wall Memorial, we turn our attention to the tailrace.

In the following overview shot we see the headrace has been filled in just beyond the bridge next to the control structure we have examined. The trees in the background are growing along the tailrace. The tailrace flows into the Illinois River just beyond the headquarters building.

One of the slides in the video shows that all of the grass and parking lot in this view were underwater during the 2013 flood.

The following view is from the downriver side of the headquarters building. You can see the hydro power station in the background. There used to be plants all along the river between this tailrace and the power plant that were fed water from the north headrace. And the remnant in the left foreground was probably part of a plant between the south headrace and this tailrace.

I got the following closeup near the tailrace opening to capture some of the foundation ruins that still stand. The pavers in the foreground are not ruins. They are part of the parking lot for the headquarters.

Marseilles North Millrace

The red line in the satellite picture shows the location of the north mill raceway in Marseilles, IL. The only remaining structure that used water from the headrace is the red roofed hydro power plant at the left end. The plant quit operating in 1989. I circled a yellow pile of dirt that was added later. Evidently someone wanted to make sure the plant will not easily use water again. A web search displays a lot of links concerning lawsuits. I can't force myself to read about lawsuits.

The blue line indicates what is left of the tailrace. In 1911, when the hydro plant was planned, we see that the big building did not exist and that the tailrace went almost to Main Street.

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I count 10 plants in addition to the hydro plant between the north headrace and either the tailrace or the river. They are all gone now.

The following pictures are in the order that the water would flow through the millrace.

When the Army Corps of Engineers built the Marseille Dam, they also built a new control structure at the entrance of the millrace.

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The sand and gravel in the foreground is the top of a 4-foot dike that the Corps added on top of the old levee after the 2013 flood. The building in the background is the abandoned 8-story Nabisco carton factory. We will see more of that building as we follow the millrace through town.

I got closeups of the control gates because they are the first time I have seen counterweights used with Tainter gates.

Note that the lever that holds the gate extends past the pivot point...

...to hold up counter weights on the back side.

Our next access point is the Main Street bridge over the headrace.
Upstream and...

...downstream we see the old Nabisco plant that I had mentioned.

The trees in the millrace are blocking a view of a bridge across the millrace that provided rail access to the building. This is the last of about 4 bridges that used to cross the millrace between here and the hydro plant.

Below I cut the top of the building off because I was making sure I got all of the wall along the headrace to verify that this 1921 building did not use any water power. The end of the tailrace was filled in to make room for this building.

Buildings and trees block views of the raceway until we get to the hydro plant.

From the above view, if I turn to my left, I look upstream.

I stepped back from the forebay to get an angle that would let me see past the tree overgrowth on the right because I noticed some water control gate ruins.

Zooming in shows they are in pretty bad shape. But this is an indication that the building that sat between here and...
 

...the river used water power.

The forerunner for Certain-Teed was General Roofing Manufacturing which was founded in 1904. In the 1800s, plants that used water power would have shafts going across the top of the manufacturing floor with leather belts connecting a shaft to each of the machines. Did plants in the early 1900s still use water power? Some of them must because the hydro power plant was using "surplus" water flow.

http://www.marseillesil.net/PhotoHistory.html

1911 Marseilles Hydro Power Station

The Marseilles Hydro Power Station was built in 1911 to provide 25 cycle power to the Illinois Traction System interurban and 60 cycle power to 6 local lighting and power companies at 33kv.

The plant leases surplus flow from the north millrace. A flow study determined that during an extreme low-water period in June, 1910, they could still get 4500 hp with an 11-foot head.

This interior view shows the 6 new 320kw Westinghouse umbrella generators that are driven by 74-in. Samson Special water turbines operating at 75 rpm. Four of the units generate 25hz and two generate 60hz. Because the demand for interurban power goes up  while the demand for lighting power goes down during the day, the coupled rotating units on the right is the 750kw, 300 rpm frequency convertor. They have enough capacity that all of the output of the plant can be converted to the needed frequency.

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The umbrella design means that the "hump" on the top contains the roller thrust bearing. Not only can the 20-ton traveling crane remove the upper spider and rotor, the generator and foundations are designed so that the turbine shaft and runner may be lifted out of the flume after also lifting the lower spider.

The above 6 direct coupled generators occupy the west and center portions of the station. I cropped the west side of the floor plan because it was just more of the direct coupled generators, and I want to concentrate on the east side which contains two horizontal shaft generators.

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Each horizontal shaft is driven by 3 62-in. Samson turbines using gears. The 500kw unit is a new 25hz, 2300 volt, 225 rpm Westinghouse. The 450kw is an old 60hz, 2300 volt, 200 rpm General Electric that was taken from an old Consolidated plant which also supplied the 62-in turbines.

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Excitation is provided by two 90kw Westinghouse exciters, direct-connected to 40-in., 100 rpm water turbines. The plant also has a 100kw Westinghouse motor-generator. I quote from the journal because I don't understand what it is saying: "The latter was provided in case of any serious interruptions from ice gorges in the river below the station. It may be operated in case of a complete shutdown by current supplied from and outside source to furnish excitation to the frequency changer for interurban service."

Below, the lower-right is part of one of the direct-coupled exciters.The unit this side of the frequency converter is the motor-generator exciter.

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An interior shot from Marseilles web site indicates that 3 of the original direct-coupled generators have been upgraded.

http://www.marseillesil.net/PhotoHistory.html

When I took a picture of the river side, the river was running above normal. The opening on the left (west) side is for the spillway.

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John's picture from 2008 shows a more normal river level.

John Weeks III

You can see the head of the spillway on the right in this photo that was taken while the plant was still operational.

http://www.marseillesil.net/PhotoHistory.html

There was a sheer boom across the forebay that diverted trash into the spillway.

The plant quit operating in 1989, and water no longer flows into the headrace so the water level of the forebay is way below the operational level. I have no idea why the dirt ridge was added to the forebay.

The substation to the right of where I'm standing looks intact. I'm glad someone still mows the yard between the road and the forebay so that these views are still accessible.