Lock 23 Slighted Again
The locks on the Upper Mississippi are one of the last mighty pieces left from Roosevelt's CCC program. The whole Depression aside, that period in American history to me is one of the finest; showing that controlled Socialism can work for the greater good. However, it is true that the locks have outlived their use. When I worked out there 15 years ago, the locks on the Upper were in bad shape. Each summer a handful of them would get rehabbed, but it was a lot like putting a band-aid on a bullet wound. Building new locks are long overdue, although environmentalist will argue that they shouldn't be there to begin with. Making these locks 1200 feet long will allow for quicker river travel from at least Saint Louis to Burlington, IA (Lock 18). (Lock 19 is already a 1200 foot chamber with a normal pool lift of roughly 50 feet or so ... the largest lift on the Upper Mississippi).
It's strange timing that this story appeared in the news. Just yesterday afternoon on the way home from work I was thinking about the days of making 600 foot locks. Mostly I was thinking about how our crew made them like a well oiled machine. If we could get a fat lockman off his lazy duff, we could make them in an hour and fifteen minutes tops. We'd throw four wires on at the break coupling, tighten them down, turn the whole thing loose, and by the time the stern of the boat cleared the long wall, we'd have all ten wires on. Everyone bitched about making a lock, but when you worked the Upper you knew you had to make one every watch. I never minded making them. I always thought it made the time go by faster. I'm sure all the deckhands will be glad to get 1200 foot chambers, and all the pilots will hate having to figure out how to make the lock at all the various stages.
For those that don't know, there is no Lock 23. Lock 22 is at Saverton, MO, and Lock 24 is at Clarksville, MO.
No feedback yet
Comment feed for this postLeave a comment
