Waterway improvements

✍ Scribed by Lewis M. Haupt

• Book ID: 104118155
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1912
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 647 KB
• Volume: 174
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/s0016-0032(12)90885-6

✦ Synopsis

BY virtue of the increased tonnage and draught of vessels, the constant deterioration of river channels and harbor bars has led to the expenditure of enormous sums o.f money in efforts to main' rain the wo.rld's maritime traffic thro.ugh such channels.

Attempts have been made to solve this complex problem of deterioration by the use of jetties in pairs, aided by dredging, and great progress has been made in the efficiency of hydraulic dredges. Mechanical appliances do not modify, however, the forces which mould the beds of the channels in plastic material and can never serve to. automatically maintain the depths they tentatively secure.

For the purpose of ensuring greater safety, speed, and economy in the maritime fnterchange o.f trade, the expenditures by all nations will aggregate more than $ioo, ooo, ooo annually. Yet the possibility of preventing such expenditures by utilizing the energy of the maritime forces themselves, instead of endeavoring to combat those forces, does not seem to have been realized until within the last few years, when the utiIity of such a system has been fully demonstrated, even under exceptionally adverse conditions.

Prior to the improvement of the South Pass in 1879 by two curved jetties, the ruling depths of the Gulf of Mexico. at the inlets were from 3 to. 12 feet, and large sums of money had been expended in efforts to obtain deeper water, but with little effect. At Galveston, however, after a lapse of some thirty years and an expenditure of over $IO,OOO,OOO, a tortuous channel of more than 3o feet has been provided, though the bar has advanced over three miles and constant dredging is required to maintain the depths.

At Liverpool, England, it was estimated that the removal of 9,ooo,ooo cubic yards of material wQuM sttffice to secure a 3 °foot channel to the port.