Page images
PDF
EPUB

34 feet and a width of 750 feet; deepening Sparkman Channel and Ybor turning basin to 34 feet; and for revoking the authorized improvement of Alafia River and substituting in lieu thereof a channel 30 feet deep and 200 feet wide from Hillsboro Bay Channel to and including the existing turning basin to be enlarged to a depth of 30 feet, a width of 700 feet, and a length of 1,200 feet; and substantial widening at entrances, bends, and turns; provided that all applicable requirements of local cooperation for the existing project shall remain in force except those pertaining to approval of wharfage charges by the Secretary of War (Secretary of the Army) and those pertaining to the municipal belt-line railroad, subject to certain conditions of local cooperation. The division engineer concurs.

The Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors has carefully considered the reports of the reporting officers and the additional information submitted to it. It concurs in the views that modification of the existing project as proposed in the report of the district engineer is necessary to provide safe and satisfactory navigation for the larger tankers and dry-cargo vessels which handle about two-thirds of the total commerce of Tampa Harbor. The recent extensive development of terminals and the railroad pattern of the region has eliminated the need for construction of a municipal belt-line railroad along the north end and east side of Ybor Channel. Inasmuch as Federal control over wharfage and other port charges are now vested in the Interstate Commerce Commission and the United States Maritime Commission it is believed to be unnecessary and undesirable to require approval of those charged by the Secretary of the Army. Refrigerated ship service from Tampa Harbor has been discontinued and it is unlikely that it will be resumed in the near future. A precooling plant on Alafia River is no longer needed and the requirement that local interests construct such a plant should be eliminated from the project. The Board believes that the plan of improvement proposed by the reporting officers is the most desirable and practicable plan for further improvement of Tampa Harbor facilities for navigation and that it will provide suitable and safe conditions for navigation by all modern vessels that will use the port.

The Board accordingly recommends that the existing project for Tampa Harbor, Fla., be modified to provide for deepening Egmont Channel to 36 feet; enlarging Mullet Key Cut to a depth of 34 feet and a width of 500 feet; enlarging Tampa Bay, Hillsboro Bay, and Port Tampa Channels to a depth of 34 feet and a width of 400 feet; enlarging Port Tampa turning basin to a depth of 34 feet and a width of 750 feet; deepening Sparkman Channel and Ybor turning basin to 34 feet; revoking the authorized improvement of Alafia River and substituting in lieu thereof a channel 30 feet deep and 200 feet wide from Hillsboro Bay Channel to and including the existing turning basin to be enlarged to a depth of 30 feet, a width of 700 feet, and a length of 1,200 feet; and substantial widening at entrances, bends, and turns; generally in accordance with the plan of the district engineer and with such modifications thereof as in the discretion of the Chief of Engineers may be advisable.

In accordance with existing law a copy of the Chief of Engineers' proposed report was furnished the Governor of Florida for comment. He stated that the State of Florida supports the project.

In accordance with section 4 of Executive Order No. 9384 the report was submitted to the Bureau of the Budget for information as to the relationship of the proposed report to the program of the President. The Bureau of the Budget advised that there would be no objection to the submission of the report to Congress.

After due consideration of these reports the Chief of Engineers concurs in the views and recommendations of the Board.

The improvements are recommended provided that for new work responsible local interests give assurances satisfactory to the Secretary of the Army that they will: (a) Provide without cost to the United States all lands, easements, rights-of-way, and spoil-disposal areas necessary for construction and subsequent maintenance of the project, when and as required; (b) hold and save the United States free from damage due to the construction and subsequent maintenance of the works; (c) construct such bulkheads and retaining works, and strengthen or move adjacent structures as may be required, prior to dredging, to safeguard the channels, basins, and adjacent lands and structures in accordance with plans approved by the Chief of Engineers; (d) provide, prior to or concurrently with the Federal improvement, additional or enlarged slips and berthing space with necessary terminal facilities at Port Tampa in accordance with plans approved by the Chief of Engineers; (e) open existing terminal facilities in Alafia River to all at the same rates and charges that apply at other Tampa Harbor terminals and expand these facilities as and when required to meet the needs of commerce; and (f) open the terminal facilities at Tampa Harbor to all on equal terms.

It is further recommended: (1) That the existing conditions of local cooperation whereby approval of wharfage charges by the Secretary of War is required and local interests are required to construct à precooling plant in Alafia River, be revoked; and (2) that the requirements pertaining to the municipal belt-line railroad be modified so as to require no further extension of trackage with the understanding that the city's obligation with respect to the completed portion shall remain in force until relieved by the Chief of Engineers.

The cost to United States for construction is estimated in the report at $7,787,000.

The annual carrying charges are estimated at $341,085 which includes $36,500 for maintenance in addition to that now required. Average annual evaluable benefits from the proposed improvement are estimated at $495,300 including $387,000 accruing in the Tampa and Port Tampa regions and $108,300 in the Alafia River area. The benefits in the Tampa and Port Tampa region consist of savings of $123,000 and $96,000 from reduced lay-over time by tankers and dry-cargo vessels, respectively, and savings of $168,000 from increased loadings of petroleum products. The benefits at Alafia River accrue from savings resulting from elimination of rail transportation. The ratio of evaluable prospective benefits from the over-all plan for further improvement to estimated annual charges is 1.45.

Fur

The existing authorized project dimensions are inadequate for the modern tankers and dry-cargo vessels frequently using them. ther improvements to adequately serve foreign and domestic commerce are required. In addition to the evaluated benefits the improvements will provide greater safety and convenience to all vessels, particularly to tankers.

Senator SPARKMAN. Just for my own information, I would like to get some of the points referred to. This Egmont Bar, is that the outermost improvement?

Colonel MOORE. Yes, sir; that is outside of the harbor, the entrance. Senator SPARKMAN. You seek to deepen that from 32 to 36 feet? Colonel MOORE. Thirty-two to thirty-six feet. The additional 2 'eet over the 34 feet in the inside channels are made necessary by wave action in the entrance.

Senator SPARKMAN. Then, you come on in to the entrance to the arbor, and the next improvement, what is that?

Colonel MOORE. That is now 30 feet, and it is recommended that t be dredged to 34 feet.

Senator SPARKMAN. What is that channel?

Colonel MOORE. That is called Mullet Key Cut.
Senator SPARKMAN. Mullet Key Cut?

Colonel MOORE. Yes, sir.

Senator SPARKMAN. Where is Alafia River? Which way does it un?

Colonel MOORE. This channel was authorized at a dimension of 25 y 150 feet. It is an exception to the depths which I mentioned. That channel has never been dredged.

It was originally planned for refrigerated ship service. To a preCooling plant to be constructed there, but the plan never materialized. The U. S. Phosphoric Products Corp., is now operating there, as described by Congressman Peterson, and needs a deep channel, but It should be 200 feet wide rather than 150 feet.

Senator SPARKMAN. And what depth?

Colonel MOORE. Thirty feet. That is an exception to the general lepth of 34 feet in the other channels indicated here.

Senator SPARKMAN. What is the channel that the Alafia River runs nto; the long one?

Colonel MOORE. That is Hillsboro Bay Channel. It is 30 feet deep. Senator SPARKMAN. And is there an improvement on there, too? Colonel MOORE. Yes, sir. All portions shown in red are recommended to be deepened from 30 to 34 feet, with the exception of the ntrance channel, 32 to 36, and this from 25 by 150 feet to 30 by 200

eet.

Senator SPARKMAN. Where are the turning basins? I think you referred to two of them.

Colonel MOORE. One here at Port Tampa, and one here at the Alafia River, and one at the upper-end of Sparkman Channel, shown n detail on this chart.

Senator SPARKMAN. Now, the railroad that Senator Holland eferred to, where they had to unload from smaller ships and carried round to larger ships, is that a part of the belt-line railroad, or is hat a private railroad?

Colonel MOORE. No, sir, that belt-line railroad is shown right here. It serves the terminals in Tampa proper.

Senator HOLLAND. It surrounds the estuary, which is an artificially built basin where the docks are, and big refrigerated warehouses and other warehouses.

Senator SPARKMAN. That movement then from Alafia to Port Tampa is by private railroad now?

Senator HOLLAND. Yes.

Colonel MOORE. Yes, sir, Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, and it runs down to Port Tampa also.

Senator HOLLAND. The Seaboard runs into the estuary.

Colonel MOORE. Yes, sir.

Senator SPARKMAN. Well, thank you very much, Colonel Moore. Senator Holland, do you want to ask him any further questions? Senator HOLLAND. In order to get the geography of the matter a littler clearer, might I make one additional statement?

Senator SPARKMAN. Certainly.

Senator HOLLAND. Mr. Chairman, most of the factories of which we have spoken are located on or adjoining to this estuary which is in Tampa, in the heart of Tampa, such as the Portland Cement Co., Continental Can Co., American Can Co., refrigerated warehouses, and the points of unloading and storing of bananas, and so forththat is a series of very expensive developments, very active developments, around the estuary.

The reason why this Phosphoric Acid Products Co. is at the mouth of the Alafia is in connection with the chemical process which they employ. There are certain gasses loosed so they cannot be located in a populated area; they are located right across the south arm of Tampa Bay from the city on a very large tract of their own purchase, which has now become immensely developed, and it is a real hardship for them to have to continue adding to their price because of the transshipment which is necessary under the present conditions.

The reason why no other industry is there is because they have simply become such an immense industry of their own that they pretty well occupy that location over there.

Now, geographically I just wanted to get that picture a little clearer for the record.

Senator SPARKMAN. Colonel, I suppose that Sparkman Channel was named in memory of my kinsman, Judge Stephen M. Sparkman, who represented that district for a good many years and was formerly chairman of the Rivers and Harbors Committee in the House of Representatives, was it not?

Colonel MoORE. That is correct.

Senator SPARKMAN. Is that all? Is there anything further, Senator Holland?

Senator HOLLAND. Nothing further. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

MONONGAHELA RIVER, W. VA. AND PA.

Senator SPARKMAN. We will now proceed to a consideration of the Monongahela River. We have Senator Neely and Senator Kilgore present.

Senator NEELY. Mr. Chairman, the illustrious senior Senator from West Virginia, Mr. Kilgore, has, with an extravagance of courtesy insisted that I should fire the first shot in this matter because the desired and needed improvements to which we are about to address ourselves are confined to that upper part of the Monongahela River which is within a distance of 25 miles of my home in Fairmont. In fact, one of the five locks or dams included in the requested improvement is less than 2 miles from the house in which I live.

Senator Kilgore happens to be from Beckley, 200 miles south of Fairmont. Yet he is, as he will later demonstrate in his own impres

sive way, a hundred percent for the authorization which we urge the subcommittee unanimously to approve.

Senator Kilgore and I would like first for Colonel Moore to be heard, and after him, Dr. Price, geologist for the State of West Virginia. Senator SPARKMAN. Colonel Moore, will you present the report of the Army engineers?

Colonel MOORE. Yes, sir.

Mr. Chairman, the report on Monogahela River, W. Va. and Pa., as published in Senate Document No. 100, Eighty-first Congress, is in response to a resolution adopted October 3, 1947, by the Committee on Public Works of the United States Senate.

Monongahela River is formed by the junction of Tygart and West Fork River, about 1 mile south of Fairmont, W. Va. It flows in a northerly direction 128.2 miles in a generally winding course through West Virginia and Pennsylvania to its junction with the Allegheny River to form the Ohio River at Pittsburgh, Pa.

The canalized Monongahela River serves the important coalmining, steel and iron, chemical, and other industries located in the Monongahela and upper Ohio River Valleys. The population of the Monongahela Valley along and near the river was over 500,000 in 1940. The Monongahela Valley is rich in natural resources with coal ranking first in importance, and clay, shale, limestone, sandstone, sand and gravel, gas and oil, and agricultural lands, all contributing to the economic position of the region. Large reserves of bituminous coal, including large quantities with low sulfur content used in the iron and steel industry, are located in Monongalia and Marion Counties, W. Va., which border the river for practically the entire distance above lock 8. Due to depletion of the reserves of low-sulfur metallurgical coal from present supplying districts along the lower Monongahela it is expected that more intensive development of the upriver sources will occur in the near future.

The existing Federal project provides for canalization of Monongahela River to afford slack-water navigation throughout its length by a series of 13 locks and dams. From a navigation standpoint the river is divided into 2 reaches, the lower river, including locks 2 to 8, from mile 11.2 to 90.6, respectively, and the upper river, including locks 10 to 15, from mile 101.5 to 124.2, respectively; locks 1 and 9 having been eliminated. The locks are all concrete construction and the dams either concrete or timber. Locks 2 through 8 are 23 to 45 years old, and locks 10 through 15 are about 45 years old. The existing navigation structures provide a minimum controlling depth. of 10 feet over lock sills and 9 feet in the channel from the mouth to the vicinity of Morgantown, W. Va., near the head of pool 8, and 7 feet over the lock sills and in the channel from that point to the head of the river. The pool formed by lock and dam 15 extends 4 miles up Tygart River and 3.4 miles up West Fork River providing a channel 7 feet deep in these reaches. Channel widths for the respective depths are generally 300 feet with widths of less than 100 feet existing in some portions of pool 8 and less than 300 feet in some sections above lock 10. Existing lock sizes are as follows: Lock No. 2, two chambers, 56 by 362 feet; locks Nos. 3 and 4, two chambers each, 56 by 360 feet and 56 by 720 feet; locks Nos. 5 and 6, two chambers each, 56 by 360 feet; locks Nos. 7 and 8, single chambers, 56 by 360

« PreviousContinue »