entirely taken over by trucks, but some of the landings are still in existence, providing available sites for potential barge terminal developments.

50. The port of Mobile, located at the mouth of the WarriorTombigbee River system, offers complete modern facilities for handling all types of commerce. Wharves and shipside warehouses serve both ocean-going vessels and river craft. Other facilities include bulkhandling plants equipped with overhead gantry cranes and conveyor belts for loading and unloading cargo and bunkering coal, a coldstorage plant, petroleum storage tanks and terminals, a grain elevator, and ship construction and repair yards.

51. Warrior-Tombigbee waterway. The Federal Barge Line terminal at Port Birmingham is the largest and best equipped water terminal for handling general freight on the Warrior-Tombigbee waterway. This terminal has two electric derricks, a warehouse, and an overhead electric trolley system. This terminal has not been in operation in recent years, and cargoes of the Federal Barge Line are being handled at the Port Birmingham terminal of the Warrior and Gulf Navigation Co., which has facilities for handling bulk dry cargo as well as general merchandise. There are four gasoline terminals located at Port Birmingham, served by both railroads and highways; and at Tuscaloosa there are three petroleum terminals. There are several terminals with facilities for loading and unloading coal located along the waterway. At Demopolis there are three derricks for transferring logs from the river or barges to sawmills. Similar facilities exist at Bladon Springs, mile 130. At Pelhams Landing, mile 110, a crane provides for the transfer of limestone from a rock crusher to barges.

52. Tombigbee River.-There are no improved terminal facilities on the Tombigbee River upstream from Demopolis.

53. Tennessee River. The Tennessee Valley Authority has completed the construction of four rail-barge terminals designed to handle less-than-barge-load traffic, and a fifth designed for handling coal. Municipally-owned terminals with railroad connections have been constructed at Sheffield, Ala., and Chattanooga, Tenn. Other public terminals are located at Paducah, Ky.; Florence and Decatur, Ala.; but these are actually nothing more than improved landings. Railroad inclines and sidings are located at Sheffield, Decatur, Hobbs Island, Guntersville, and Bridgeport, Ala. and Chattanooga, Tenn.; Decatur, Guntersville, and Chattanooga have facilities for handling grain; terminal facilities for handling petroleum products are found at the last three mentioned points and also at Perryville and Chattanooga, Tenn. At Danville, Tenn., is a privately owned concrete warehouse and elevator with a railroad incline and siding; at Johnsonville, Tenn., a privately owned warehouse and elevator with a railroad siding. In addition, there are many unimproved private landings along the river. Facilities are considered adequate for existing

commerce.

IX. IMPROVEMENT DESIRED

54. A public hearing was held in Mobile May 28, 1945, to give interested persons an opportunity to express their views and present up-to-date statements concerning the advisability of the United States undertaking the improvement.

55. The attendance at the hearing was large and included leaders of civic organizations; Federal, State, county, and city officials; railroads' representatives; barge-line operators; waterway association officials; manufacturers; merchants; landowners; newspaper publishers; and other interested people. Those in attendance produced evidence to substantiate the need for a connecting waterway. The growth of industry in the Mobile and Birmingham districts, and the favorable prospect for much greater development, were advanced to justify the need for water transportation. Other benefits claimed for the waterway were that it would shorten the distance by water from the Tennessee Valley to the Gulf of Mexico, thereby lowering transportation charges; that it would offer an alternate slack-water route for north-bound Mississippi River traffic destined to points upstream from Cairo and Paducah on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers; and that it would be an asset for national defense in that it would give additional access by water to the interior of the country. Provision of 110- by 600-foot locks, the same size as on the Ohio River system and at the Pickwick and Kentucky Dams on the Tennessee River, was urged in order to enable the tows to move more advantageously than would be possible through the 75- by 450-foot locks proposed in the report under review. Railroad representatives expressed the only opposition to the improvement.

56. Local interests present at the hearing gave assurances that suitable and adequate public waterway terminals and transfer facilities would be provided as needed.

X. EXISTING COMMERCE

57. Traffic by major systems.—The proposed Tombigbee-Tennessee waterway is properly considered as a connecting channel between the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway on the south and the Mississippi River system upstream from Cairo, Ill., on the north. Consolidated summaries of traffic on these waterway systems are presented in table 16. The trend in ton-miles of traffic on inland waterways to be connected by the Tombigbee-Tennessee waterway is shown on plate II.

TABLE 16.-Traffic on Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and Mississippi River system, in tons and ton-miles, 1935-44

58. Fluctuations in tonnage on the Mississippi River system reflect changes in general economic conditions. During the 10-year period covered by table 16, however, the trend in ton-miles on the Mississippi River system, and in both tons and ton-miles on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, has been continuously upward. This growth in transportation service by waterways reflects the river and harbor improvement program of the 1930's. Carriers have bought new equipment designed to utilize the improved channels more efficiently. Lower transportation costs have stimulated new traffic that could not have moved at higher costs. As separate rivers and canals have been linked together into an interconnected system, the average length of waterway hauls has increased. Specialized terminals have been developing, meanwhile, adapted to the new transportation needs of industry and commerce. The resulting increase in the availability and dependability of barge transportation has led to its more widespread adoption by shippers and consignees.

59. Waterways adjoining proposed project. The only existing project along the route of the proposed Tombigbee-Tennessee waterway is the Tombigbee River from Demopolis to Walkers Bridge; however, the new channel will connect existing projects on the WarriorTombigbee waterway and Tennessee River. Traffic statistics on these three projects are given in table 17. Because of the large amount of Government construction on the Tennessee River, Government freight and commercial freight are shown separately for that waterway.

TABLE 17.—Traffic on Tombigbee River upstream from Demopolis, on WarriorTombigbee waterway, and on Tennessee River, in tons and ton-miles, 1935-44

60. Traffic on the Tombigbee River above Demopolis has consisted entirely of logs and piles moving on barges or in towed rafts at high water. The existing channel is not adequate for modern barge transportation.

61. The channel from Mobile to Port Birmingham was completed to 6-foot controlling depth in 1915, and except for brief periods, the present 8-foot controlling depth has been maintained for more than 20 years. Before the 1930's, this waterway had already developed a mature traffic, therefore the growth in tonnage has not been so rapid in recent years as on some other inland streams. Average annual

tonnage for 1925-34 was 1,426,365; for 1935-44, 1,763,725, a gain of 24 percent. Year-by-year fluctuations in traffic volume usually reflect changes in the level of production by Birmingham steel mills. Declining down-bound traffic in 1943 and 1944 was primarily caused by interference with the normal peacetime markets and distributing methods of the Birmingham mills. Up-bound traffic also declined, although in smaller proportionate amounts, because the Panama Canal was closed to cargoes ordinarily transferred from ship to barge at Mobile.

62. During most of the period covered by table 17, controlling depths on the Tennessee River have usually been about 6 feet at Chattanooga and 1 foot at Knoxville. Barge tows have been able to move safely, on most of the river, only at high water stages. The 9foot channel to Knoxville was completed in 1944. In the past, most of the tonnage has been handled by private and contract carriers, and it has consisted dominantly of sand, gravel, coal, petroleum, and lumber. A number of common carriers have operating rights on the Tennessee River and connecting streams. With the completion of full project depth and the provision of new terminals available to all on equal terms, prospects are good for a marked acceleration of the gradual growth in commercial traffic that has characterized the river in recent years.

XI. SAVINGS ON MISSISSIPPI RIVER UPSTREAM TRAFFIC

63. The provision of an alternate route from the Gulf of Mexico to the Ohio River obviously will result in substantial savings in the cost of handling barge traffic now moving northward against the current of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Cairo. Diversion of traffic to the new waterway route would not destroy any of the advantages now accruing to this traffic, by virtue of the present improvement of the Mississippi. If carrier costs via the new route are less than those attainable on the existing route, the resulting benefits are net, and fully assignable to the new project.

64. Carriers' line-haul costs.-Computation of savings attainable from use of the proposed alternate route has been based on an analysis of the line-haul costs, for 1939 (considered to be the latest reasonably normal year) of representative water carriers. These costs are shown, for different sections of the two routes, in table 18. Although wages and prices of materials have risen since 1939, higher loading factors in more recent years have resulted in substantially lower unit costs. In any event, fluctuations in unit costs would affect both routes in approximately the same degree.

TABLE 18.-Line-haul costs of barge transportation on selected sections of the Mississippi River system, Mississippi Sound, and the proposed TombigbeeTennessee waterway, based on 1939 operations

65. Navigation of Mississippi Sound.-Leading boat designers agree that certain relatively superficial modifications can be made in towboat design which would make river-type equipment efficient on Mississippi Sound in ordinary weather. In deriving carrier costs for this reach of the alternate route, shown in table 18, it is proposed that a substantial part of the tonnage would be towed from New Orleans to Mobile by tugboats, at line-haul costs equivalent to those now incurred in this service by the Federal barge lines. The remainder would be towed or propelled, depending upon weather' conditions and the types of equipment available, by river towboats adapted to the purpose.

66. The movement of waterway traffic from Mobile to Paducah over the Tombigbee-Tennessee waterway is obviously one for which no actual carrier costs can be obtained. To establish an average cost based on operations under similar conditions on other waterways, it has been assumed as typical that the through traffic of this section will be carried in 8-barge tows handling 3,500 revenue tons, pushed by 1,000 horsepower towboats.

67. Based on the costs per ton shown in table 18, the unit savings attainable from use of the Tombigbee-Tennessee waterway as an alternative route to the Mississippi River, for north-bound traffic, would be as shown in table 19.

TABLE 19.-Typical savings per ton in line-haul costs via proposed TombigbeeTennessee waterway as alternative route to upstream movement on the lower Mississippi River