CONTENTS Page Representative_ Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers: Letters.. Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, letters- Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Illinois legislative board, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, letters Bush, Clinton, letters - Calumet River, map of area owned by Illinois Central Railroad Co- 67 68, 70, 74 68, 70, 74 ILLINOIS WATERWAY-CALUMET-SAG CHANNEL AND INDIANA HARBOR AND CANAL, ILL. AND IND. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 1946 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON RIVERS AND HARBORS, Washington, D. C. The committee met at 10 a. m., Hon. Hugh Peterson (chairman) presiding. Mr. PETERSON of Georgia. The committee will come to order. ILLINOIS WATERWAY AND GRAND CALUMET RIVER, ILL. AND IND. Colonel, are you ready to proceed? STATEMENT OF COL. P. A. FERINGA, UNITED STATES ARMY ENGINEERS The first project on the list, Mr. Chairman, is the Illinois waterway and the Grand Calumet River, Ill. and Ind. It is generally known as the Calumet-Sag Channel. The Illinois waterway provides a channel for barge navigation between the Mississippi River about 38 miles above St. Louis, Mo., and the heads of the Federal projects for deep draft lake boat navigation on the Chicago and Calumet Rivers in Chicago, Ill. From the Mississippi River it consists of the canalized Illinois and Des Plaines Rivers for 291.1 miles to the lower end of the Chicago sanitary and ship canal and thence of this canal 12.4 miles to Sag Junction. Thence the northerly route continued in this canal 17.7 miles to West Fork of South Branch of Chicago River and in the West Fork and South Branch 4.5 miles to the head of Chicago River which extends east 1.6 miles to enter Lake Michigan at Chicago Harbor near the center of the city lake front. I would like to refer to the book of graphs which we have previously presented to the committee, and which indicates the large amount of traffic on the Illinois waterway. Page 7 of the pamphlet shows that the Illinois waterway carried 63,000,000 ton-miles of traffic in 1931, whereas in 1944 that had risen to 1,227,000,000 ton-miles. Mr. PETERSON of Georgia. How many tons? Colonel FERINGA. In 1931 it was 63,000,000 ton-miles and in 1944 it increased to 1,227,000,000 ton-miles. Mr. PETERSON. Quite an increase. 1 Colonel FERINGA. A tremendous increase, and the channel now is so crowded that the traffic cannot be handled with the utmost efficiency. Mr. PETERSON. Will you point out now the route of this tremendous tonnage? Colonel FERINGA. Here [indicating] is the Mississippi River and then the Illinois River, or waterway, takes off at this point [indicating]. Now, reverting to this other map, here indicating] is the Illinois waterway, and it branches into two branches; one the sanitary and ship canal which serves the port of Chicago direct, and then a branch at Sag Junction for the Calumet-Sag Canal which goes toward South or East Chicago and serves Calumet Harbor, Indiana Harbor, and all the tremendously industrialized portion of east or southeast Chicago. Mr. PETERSON of Georgia. The commerce that you referred to is on both branches? Colonel FERINGA. On both branches, but the greatest increase is on this branch, the Calumet-Sag branch. Except for a recent modification described hereafter, the Federal project for the Illinois waterway provides for a channel 9 feet deep and 300 feet wide from the Mississippi River to Lockport, by dredging and construction of locks 110 by 600 feet at seven sites including Lockport with dams as necessary, a channel 9 feet deep thence to Chicago River occupying the present width of the Chicago sanitary and ship canal, a channel 9 feet deep in Calumet-Sag Channel with the provision of three passing places 9 feet deep and 150 feet wide, a channel 9 feet deep and 300 feet wide in Little Calumet and Calumet Rivers thence into Lake Calumet and for an interchange harbor 21 feet in Lake Calumet. Except for minor work, the project improvements described have been completed. I am sorry that for once Mr. Rankin is not here, because he has previously inquired as to how this traffic which finds its way to the Great Lakes is then transshipped into ships that sail in the Great Lakes. Here [indicating] is the interchange harbor where we have depth for the shipping on the Great Lakes, and the barge traffic also comes in, and that is where some of it is transshipped. Mr. PETERSON of Georgia. How do you get out of the Great Lakes into this small lake? Colonel FERINGA. There is a ship channel 21 to 26 feet deep that comes right into Lake Calumet. There are wharves in Lake Calumet. Mr. PETERSON of Georgia. What is the distance from Lake Michigan to Lake Calumet? Colonel FERINGA. About 10 miles, sir. By the River and Harbor Act of March 2, 1945, Congress modified the project for the Illinois waterway, described above, to provide for further improvement and extension at an estimated cost of $25,900,000 for new work and $179,000 annually for maintenance. None of this work has been undertaken. That was the work authorized by the last river and harbor act, but it has not yet been undertaken. The modification authorizes widening Calument-Sag Canal to 160 feet; provision of a channel 9 feet deep and 160 feet wide in Grand Calumet River from Little Calumet River to the Indiana Harbor Canal and thence in the latter to One Hundred Forty-first Street; construction of a lock in Little Calumet River to replace Blue Island lock; and rebuilding or alteration at Federal expense of all obstructive railroad bridges with one exception across this extended south route of the Illinois waterway between Sag Junction, turning basin No. 5 and the terminus of the waterway on the Indiana Harbor Canal. This modification is subject to certain conditions of local cooperation, including the provision that local interests modify the obstructive highway bridges. Commerce on the Illinois waterway as a whole, excluding lighterage, has increased from 1,584,400 tons in 1935 to 7,804,300 tons in 1944. The 1944 commerce for the section between the Mississippi River and Lockport amounted to 6,054,490 tons and on the Chicago sanitary and ship canal to 6,327,000 tons. Commerce for the Calumet-Sag route between Sag Junction and turning basin No. 5 increased from 43,270 tons in 1936 to 1,165,390 tons in 1944, whereas the district engineer estimates the efficient capacity of this route as presently improved at only 1,000,000 tons. Although a variety of commodities make up the Illinois waterway commerce, the principal items are coal, grain and petroleum products. No commerce moves on Grand Calumet River in its present unimproved state. Indiana Harbor and Canal handled 13,535,300 tons of commerce in 1944. The easterly terminal channels of the Illinois waterway will serve Chicago and the adjacent populous and industrialized cities in Illinois and Indiana. Calumet-Sag channel leads toward the great industrial area in south Chicago and southeast of Chicago in which are numerous steel mills, oil refineries and storage yards, grain elevators, chemical industries, and plants allied with heavy industries. Local interests desire extension of the recently authorized barge canal in Grand Calumet River from the Indiana Harbor Canal to Clark Street, Gary, Ind., a distance of 4.1 miles along the proposed alinement. They also desire relocation of the lock authorized by the 1945 River and Harbor Act. The Board recommends modification of the existing project for the Illinois waterway, Illinois and Indiana, to provide for substituting the following work for that authorized by the River and Harbor Act approved March 2, 1945: replacement of the emergency dam in the Chicago sanitary and ship canal; enlargement of that canal thence to Sag Junction and of Calumet-Sag Channel to afford channels 225 feet wide with usable depth of 9 feet; construction along the general route of Grand Calumet River of a channel with usable depth of 9 feet, 225 feet wide between Little Calumet River and the junction with the Indiana Harbor Canal and 160 feet wide thence to Clark Street, Gary, Ind., with a turning basin at Clark Street; enlargement of the Indiana Harbor Canal to a width of 225 feet and usable depth of 9 feet between Grand Calumet River and the vicinity of One Hundred Forty-first Street, inclusive; removal of Blue Island Lock and construction of a lock and control works in Calumet River near its head and of similar structures in the proposed Grand Calumet Channel west of the Indiana Harbor Canal; alteration of elimination of railroad bridges across these channels lakeward of the Chicago sanitary and |