Lock and Dam No. 53 | |
---|---|
Location | Illinois/Kentucky border |
Coordinates | 37°11′57″N89°02′14″W / 37.1993°N 89.0373°W |
Opening date | 1929 |
Demolition date | 2021 |
Operator(s) | United States Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District |
Dam and spillways | |
Type of dam | Wicket |
Impounds | Ohio River |
Length | 3,662 feet |
Reservoir | |
Normal elevation | was 290 feet above sealevel |
Lock and Dam 53 was the 20th lock and dam upstream from the confluence of the Ohio River and the Mississippi River. It was located 962 miles downstream from Pittsburgh. Lock and Dam 53 had two locks for commercial barge traffic, one that was 1,200 feet long by 110 feet wide, the other 600 feet long by 110 feet wide. The lock has been demolished and Olmsted Lock and Dam has replaced it. [1]
According to the New York Times , in 2015 72.3 million tonnes of cargo transited the lock, making it the second biggest and most economically important, in the United States, after nearby Lock and Dam Number 52. [2]
According to the New York Times, the Olmsted project was scheduled to have been completed in 1998. [2] In November 2016, the New York Times reported the Olmsted project was then scheduled to be complete in October 2018. The project's cost had ballooned from $775 million to $2.9 billion. It became operational in August of 2018.
The New York Times reports that the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal agency responsible for maintaining navigation on the USA's rivers, the delay in replacing the lock complex with the Olmsted project costs $640 million per year. [2]
Landside demolition was completed in 2021, but underwater structure removal was ongoing through 2022. [3] Final demolition was completed February 21, 2023. [4]
The Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway is a 234-mile (377 km) artificial U.S. waterway built in the 20th century from the Tennessee River to the junction of the Black Warrior-Tombigbee River system near Demopolis, Alabama. The Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway links commercial navigation from the nation's midsection to the Gulf of Mexico. The major features of the waterway are 234 miles (377 km) of navigation channels, a 175-foot-deep (53 m) cut between the watersheds of the Tombigbee and Tennessee rivers, and ten locks and dams. The locks are 9 by 110 by 600 feet, the same dimension as those on the Mississippi above Lock and Dam 26 at Alton, Illinois. Under construction for 12 years by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway was completed in December 1984 at a total cost of nearly $2 billion.
The Okeechobee Waterway or Okeechobee Canal is a relatively shallow artificial waterway in the United States, stretching across Florida from Fort Myers on the west coast to Stuart on Florida's east coast. The waterway can support tows such as barges or private vessels up to 50 feet wide x 250 feet long which draw less than 10 feet, as parts of the system, especially the locks may have low water depths of just ten feet. The system of channels runs through Lake Okeechobee and consists of the Caloosahatchee River to the west of the lake and the St. Lucie Canal east of the lake.
The McAlpine Locks and Dam are a set of locks and a hydroelectric dam at the Falls of the Ohio River at Louisville, Kentucky. They are located at mile point 606.8, and control a 72.9 miles (117.3 km) long navigation pool. The locks and their associated canal were the first major engineering project on the Ohio River, completed in 1830 as the Louisville and Portland Canal, designed to allow shipping traffic to navigate through the Falls of the Ohio.
The Illinois Waterway system consists of 336 miles (541 km) of navigable water from the mouth of the Calumet River at Chicago to the mouth of the Illinois River at Grafton, Illinois. Based primarily on the Illinois River, it is a system of rivers, lakes, and canals that provide a shipping connection from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico via the Illinois and Mississippi rivers.
Melvin Price Locks and Dam is a dam and two locks at river mile 200.78 on the Upper Mississippi River, about 17 miles (27 km) north of Saint Louis, Missouri. The collocated National Great Rivers Museum, explains the structure and its engineering.
Lock and Dam No. 3 is a lock and dam located near Red Wing, Minnesota on the Upper Mississippi River around river mile 796.9. It was constructed and placed in operation July 1938. The site underwent major rehabilitation from 1988 through 1991. The dam is 365 feet (111.3 m) long with 4 roller gates. More than 2,000 feet (609.6 m) of earth embankment with a series of upstream spot dikes completes the structure to create Pool 3. The lock chamber is 110 feet (33.5 m) wide by 600 feet (182.9 m) long. The lock and dam is owned and operated by the St. Paul District of the United States Army Corps of Engineers-Mississippi Valley Division.
Lock and Dam No. 13 is a lock and dam located on the Upper Mississippi River above Fulton, Illinois and Clinton, Iowa, United States. This facility offers visitors a view of the barges and boats locking through on the widest pool in the Upper Mississippi River.
Lock and Dam No. 15 is a lock and dam located on the Upper Mississippi River. It spans the river between Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa. Lock and Dam 15 is the largest roller dam in the world, its dam is 1,203 feet (366.7 m) long and consists of nine 109 feet (33.2 m) non-submersible, non-overflow roller gates and two 109 feet (33.2 m) non-submersible overflow roller gates. It is unusual among the upper Mississippi River dams in that it has only roller gates, has different sizes and types of roller gates, it is not perpendicular to the flow of the river and is one of the few facilities that has a completed auxiliary lock. The main lock is 110 feet (33.5 m) wide by 600 feet (180 m) long and its auxiliary lock is 110 feet (34 m) wide by 360 feet (110 m) long. In 2004, the facility was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as Lock and Dam No. 15 Historic District, #04000175 covering 3,590 acres (1,450 ha), 2 buildings, 9 structures, and 1 object.
Chain of Rocks Lock and Dam, also known as Locks No. 27, is a lock situated at the southern end of Chouteau Island near St. Louis, Missouri on the Upper Mississippi River. Its associated dam is just downstream of the Chain of Rocks Bridge, and the lock is located over 3 miles (4.8 km) southeast on the Chain of Rocks canal. The canal and locks allow river traffic to bypass a portion of the river that is unnavigable in low water due to an anticlinal exposure of bedrock in the river—a "chain of rocks".
The Olmsted Locks and Dam is a locks and wicket dam on the Ohio River at river mile 964.4. The project is intended to reduce tow and barge delays by replacing the existing older, and frequently congested, locks and dams Number 52 and Number 53. The locks are located about 17 miles upstream from the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers at Olmsted, Illinois.
Starved Rock Lock and Dam, also known as Lock and Dam No. 6, is a lock and dam facility managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers along the Illinois River, near Starved Rock. It is part of the Illinois Waterway and was constructed between 1926 and 1933. The lock and dam was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Starved Rock Lock and Dam Historic District in 2004.
C.W. Bill Young Lock and Dam in Harmar Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and Plum, Pennsylvania, is a lock that was built in 1932. The lock and fixed-crest dam were built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a part of an extensive system of locks and dams to improve navigation along the Allegheny River.
The Davis Island Lock and Dam Site on the Ohio River in Avalon, Pennsylvania, is the site of the former Davis Island lock that was completed in 1885.
The Kaukauna Locks Historic District is a lock and dam system in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, United States, that carried boat traffic around a rapids of the Fox River starting in the 1850s as part of the Fox–Wisconsin Waterway. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 for its significance in engineering and transport.
Walter Mickle Smith, Sr. was a civil engineer who worked primarily on U.S. dams and waterway projects. He was a consulting engineer on the construction of the Panama Canal and Panama Canal Locks and later served as design engineer for the New York Board of Water Supply. He spent much of his career with the State of Illinois waterways division and was its chief engineer until his retirement in 1937. Several of his works built in the 1920s and 1930s as part of the Illinois Waterway project are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including portions of the Brandon Road Lock and Dam, the Dresden Island Lock and Dam, the Lockport Lock and Power House, and the Marseilles Lock and Dam.
Emsworth Locks and Dam is a combination of locks and dam on the Ohio River located just downstream of Pittsburgh. The dam has two gated sections, one on each side of Neville Island. There are two locks, one for commercial barge traffic that is 600 feet long by 110 feet wide, and the recreational auxiliary lock that is 360 feet long by 56 feet wide. Emsworth averages about 470 commercial lock throughs every month and 350-400 lock throughs a month on the recreational auxiliary lock.
The Robert C. Byrd Lock and Dam, formerly the Gallipolis Lock and Dam, is the 10th lock and dam on the Ohio River, located 280 miles downstream from Pittsburgh. There are 4 locks: one for commercial barge traffic, 1,200 feet long by 110 feet wide; the auxiliary lock is 600 feet long by 110 feet wide; and there are 2 smaller parallel locks.
Lock and Dam 52 was the 19th lock and dam on the Ohio River. It was 939 miles (1,511 km) downstream of Pittsburgh and 23 miles (37 km) upstream from the confluence of the Mississippi River with the Ohio.
Thomas J. O'Brien Lock & Dam is a stop lock in the Hegewisch neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago at the confluence of the Grand Calumet River and Little Calumet River, which form the Calumet River. It is a component of the Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS), which is, itself, a part of the Illinois Waterway, which links the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes.