ExiledInIllinois Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 If these things interest you guys, I am getting pretty good posting attachments. I can post pictures of various things going on here and by summer/warmer weather I will be a pro! ;) I can start an official "canal thread" and post the pictures... Only if I do not bore you to death! We are getting pounded w/snow (Thanks bbb! ) and then the extreme cold... Hopefully, it will be a blizzard of epic proportions!!... But between fighting the cold and snow... We are fully operational with no restrictions! Tows and are moving back and forth more regularly to keep the channel open... So we are very busy keeping ice from forming and freezing our gates in, we have to cycle and keep water moving constantly even if no traffic is present. If we don't we will be locked (no pun intended) in for the winter. Compressors by our gates run bubbles/air through a 4 inch line and keep the water moving/bubbling... It creates a curtain of bubbles and if you manipulate them just right, you can get your lock gates (we use sector gates) to open (recess) and close fully! Doing this allows the tow boats to maintain maximum tow width (108' wide). Currently, there are no ice restrictions... But the the other locks downstream will start making "ice couplings" between barges mandatory. That means that the tows do not couple their barges flat side to flat side (box to box)... They will go rake (the long sloping bow) to rake or rake to box... This give room for the ice between the coupled barges. Here are some pics from earlier this evening... I will try and caputure the storm and ice lockages w/my smartphone... If I am not doing other things... I am in the office now, waiting for a break in snow and then will plow a way through and keep things clear for the midnight shift. Kinda warm still @ 35 so we don't have to cycle our gates too much unless we get a boat. Cold sub-zero air will "knit" all the chunk ice up! Modern winter lock & dam: In reference to the original theme of the thread, we still do things like they used to in Lockport! The concept is all the same except on a very grand scale... Thanks to modern machines, electricity, hydraulics, engines, etc... It only takes a crew of two to run things, and probably could get by with one if it wasn't for safety... Like falling in or getting your head snapped off by an exploding line/rope. Gotta run! Once again, you can keep track of the boats @ www.MarineTraffic.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 5, 2014 Author Share Posted January 5, 2014 Here is the boat that just came back. He came back "Light Boat", which means he does not have any barges... Kinda like "Bob Tail" w/a semi: Still waiting out some of the snow before I plow... Don't want to do it too early before midnights comes in! Here is my trusty sled, the pickup is for areas where you won't be able to crash into the icy river! Mods, should I start a new thread? Didn't mean to hijack it! I am such a lock geek! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Jack Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 Mods, should I start a new thread? Didn't mean to hijack it! I am such a lock geek! I moved these to this new thread for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outsidethebox Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 Thanks EII. I used to live a stones through from the Erie Canal. I always enjoyed watching the barges and boats navigate through the locks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LancasterSteve Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 Very interesting thanks. Here is a You Tube bit on the Lockport Locks. Been by them 1000's of times going to Medina & Ridgeway in the last 50 years but never knew that much about them : Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 5, 2014 Author Share Posted January 5, 2014 Here is the official Youtube video. Of course it wasn't shot in the frozen tundra wasteland that are the conditions today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL9Og84A0Qo And BTW: I am NOT one of those lazy bums on the controlling works (dam) that got caught by the camera! So don't even ask! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 Now that it is wintertime and there is ice... A good break down of barge couplings can be seen in the video I posted above. @ 1:57... You will see the "rake" of the barge, usually @ the bow... Long sloping to the water line. @ 2:01... You will the second coupling is a "box" to box coupling... Box is the bow or stern that is perpendicular to the water line. @ 2:04... You will see the last coupling on that 6 barge tow as a box to rake. For obvious reasons, in icing conditions, tows should be made up with "ice couplings." Trying to cable and tie a box-box in ice can be almost impossible. The rake, especially rake to rake (while not as strong or sturdy) will enable room for the ice. Configuring the tow w/ice couplings can save a lot of time... Especially down river where the lock chambers are only 600' long and they need to break their tows apart for two "cuts" or lockage cycle. Mandating ice coupling speeds up the process of tieing back together and doesn't hold up other vessels waiting their lock turn! Crazy thing is about ice couplings... Sometimes towboat pilots will even configure their barges w/these ice type couplings in the summer. Rake to rake creates that space... Crazy small craft/pleasure boats have been known to sometimes shoot through that opening (obviously drunk boaters) between the barges of the slowing moving tow! Big surprise is if the barges on the other side are coupled box-box! SPLAT! Kind like laying on train tracks as the train goes over, only to raise up! OUCH! Right now the first lock on the Illinois to put width restrictions on tows is @ Marseilles. Illinois Waterway lock chambers are 110' wide and can accomdate 108' wide tows (x2 54' wide barges). The width restriction has now been knocked down to 105' feet wide (x3 35' wide barges). That bascially means they can't breast up two 54' wide tankers alongside each other because of the growing "ice shelf" in the lock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BringBackFergy Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Very interesting pics and background info EII. I'll keep following the thread. Kindly make sure to attach pics of the Hawaiin Tropic Barge as it passes by this Summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 LoL... Starting during winter and working our way to the warm days of summer. Did some wildlife pics last month. Two swans a swimming in a ice free area: Here is a screen shot (sorry for the low res, far off, almost 600' away and captured from the secruity camera) of coyotes on ice having a snack. Hopefully not the two swans a swimming! I should probably start using my SLR camera to get better pics... Yet, it is easier to lug a smartphone around! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BringBackFergy Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 I bet the locks are full of ice...-30 degree wind chills must produce some big blocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 Now that you asked, upper pool (Lake Michigan elevation) today, I could probably run across it!: Shipping kinda is in hiding (down river, etc...), they have been breaking it up and clearing a channel. Usually a big horsepower vessel from down south will ply the waters in the winter, shunting tankers around. Totally right Fergy, the sub-zero is the crazy stuff that knits it all back up! Once this blast of cold air stops, they will be back to grinding up a trail through the shipping lane. We have bubblers that run off generators/air compressors for ice in the recesses and to keep our gates moving... Gates today open about 95% (chamber width is 110'). Bubblers: Diesel generator look like this: Here is the air control valves: This is how we keep our repair barge/work flat from heaving in the ice. Water circulators are put around it. Think of them as big boat props... It circulates the warm water from the bottom to the top. Right now we have a duck (I think a wood duck or a coot, NOT a mallard) living/taking refuge in the warm ice free pool, I will try and get a day light pic of the duck itself! Notice one of the water circulators just above the red davit... Along side the vessel... Pipe sticking down the side of the vessel. There are a few more circulators around the vessel... Keeps it ice free and from heaving or possibly sinking! And the chamber today: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BringBackFergy Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Interesting stuff EII. I suppose all the steel "skirting" along the edges of the canal is pretty durable because ice chunks could cause some major damage when they release, refreeze, and then jamb up again..the bubblers apparently keep the gates free to move water levels up and down in the event of an ice jamb...had to be some major problems before they had the bubblers I bet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 (edited) Interesting stuff EII. I suppose all the steel "skirting" along the edges of the canal is pretty durable because ice chunks could cause some major damage when they release, refreeze, and then jamb up again..the bubblers apparently keep the gates free to move water levels up and down in the event of an ice jamb...had to be some major problems before they had the bubblers I bet. It will seem that I am going off on tangents about the mission, but everything is all interrelated, even down to the ice. No problems with ice for the first 30 years the lock & dam was there. The river was too hot and polluted to freeze (that much). The lock & dam was never designed w/ice in mind. In the lock chamber, you will see steel "rub strips." Those are to protect the concrete cap from damage from the barges (tows). Actually, the project was built in 1960. It was tacked onto the Seaway project and funded through those appropriations. Buffalo District was actually the lead Corps district. Lake Calumet is the international port of Chicago which is 1/4 mile north of the lock/dam and is the terminus of the Seaway. Lake Cal is about 7 miles from Lake Michigan DOWNstream the Calumet river. The lock was built to handle the shipping and aid in flushing the river as was the widening of the Cal-Sag Channel (to 400' wide). Our lock replaced the older Blue Island Lock that was further down river. Blue Island Lock was built in the 1920's. The only thing left of that lock is the old lock wall which you can see from Google Earth. There are many parts of the mission with regard to how the Chicago Area Waterways are "plumbed," we are one of the key elements to handling, flood control (Northeast Illinois and Northwest Indiana), pollution control, & navigation. Again about the ice. That is a a relatively new thing.... Within the last 20 years. The lock was never designed with bubblers, what you see were installed on river bottom in the gate recesses within the last 8 or so years. Smaller ineffective bubblers were tacked on by hanging them off the wall only in the last 20 or so years. Those earlier ineffective bubblers have been replaced w/this system. Again, the reason for lack of ice being factored into the design is the river never froze! The water was so polluted that nothing but sludge worms would live in it. You had all the steel plants going full bore north of us in South Chicago, that would also keep the water warm. Acme Steel is still below us @ a bend in the river. Acme Steel releases warm water, so nothing freezes below that bend in the river. The bend is appropriately named, you guessed it, Acme Steel Bend (LoL). It acts as a "trap" to the "drain." We are the "flow plug" or controlling works that causes the river to reverse and send water (ie: pollution) south and away from the lake. That is how is the water is dilluted and flushed cleaned, avoiding contaminating Lake Michigan. The ice fields are only upstream of Acme Steel Bend and through us. The water gets cleaner every year and the ice gets thicker! Nobody is putting hot water out above us since the upstream steel plants (LTV, Republic, etc..) left South Chicago. We now have 40 different species of fish that live in the river. We are the land of unintended consequences... Clean up the water, invasives then can move about. Clean water freezes. Also... The lock & controlling works (dam) is built on a metal structure. Yes, metal structure. It was built cheap as noted later in my post. What you see is a concrete "cap" and the concrete gate monoliths... Everything else is on metal sheet piling "cells." If the water was (as it sometimes does) to get lower, the metal cells would become apparent. Metal structures are required to be tested every so many years. We are past our 50 year life expectancy. The metal is wearing away and given time, probably with in the next 20-30 years, will fail... Tests (by divers required every so many years by regulations) have indicated this wear. When the lock was built, they actually designed cathodic protection into the structure. That cathodic protection system was supposed to keep the metal structure from rusting away. The system was shut off and dismantled about 10 years after the lock was built... An early cathodic system, it never worked properly. Now. Total cost of construction in 1960 was only 6 million dollars. A 60 day closure now hits the economy for 18 million dollars in ecomomic gain. That is a lot of bang for the taxpayers bucks! In 50 years they have spent less building it and the overhead to keep it running, staffed 24/7/365 than they have spent the last 4 years on Asian carp alone! Go figure! Edited January 7, 2014 by ExiledInIllinois Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 (edited) EDIT: Oh, I forgot... Above posts have the Youtube video. You can see the metal structure when you notice the guys on the dam and the little boat heading away from there... That is a very good shot of the sheet piling cells the whole structure is built on. The whole area along the lock "long wall" was sheet piled off and then back filled w/fill material. Along the guidewall above and below the lock, timbers run in rows. You can see these timbers in the pictures and video. The timbers used to be wood, as they still are on the gates, they have since been replaced with rubber. These rubber timbers protect the structure from the damaging blows of the barges/tows. Edited January 7, 2014 by ExiledInIllinois Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BringBackFergy Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Good history. Never realized the importance of these locks but they are vital. I drive by the Mohawk River locks when I drive back to Buffalo and saw how the last flood we had caused all kinds of garbage/debris and trees to clog up the gates and even the lock man's tower was flooded out. You probably get some debris, but it sounds like your chanel is pretty well maintained. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 Yep. This whole invasive issue is really the fly in the oinment! They are talking 10's billions of dollars of the course of 25 years! Huh? It has been taking over 100 to get to where we are now. Anyway... Here are some flooding pics from last April. Here, if it goes over that wall, we are in really BIG trouble: Here is the flooding on the Illinois River @ Marseilles Lock & Dam: Runaway barges ended up on dam: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boyst Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 how did all of this stuff just magically come about yet back in the summer you couldn't even just take one simple picture and post it? Until i see some chicks in bikinis i am not coming back to this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 (edited) how did all of this stuff just magically come about yet back in the summer you couldn't even just take one simple picture and post it? Until i see some chicks in bikinis i am not coming back to this thread. I am trying to bury it... Slow and easy grasshopper! Patience! I just can't start a thread and say: Bikinis @ the lock, would ya? But seriously, I gotta tread a line here w/public images. I don't want to have to change the thread title to: What life used to be on the lock. Edited January 8, 2014 by ExiledInIllinois Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boyst Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I am trying to bury it... Slow and easy grasshopper! Patience! I just can't start a thread and say: Bikinis @ the lock, would ya? But seriously, I gotta tread a line here w/public images. I don't want to have to change the thread title to: What life used to be on the lock. email them to me, you can have my email address but don't share it Beerball@aol.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 email them to me, you can have my email address but don't share it Beerball@aol.com LoL! Too funny! On a much more serious note. Is AOL still around? I don't think his baud rate is fast enough! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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