Senator RUSSELL. I am quite sure that you can drive entirely around the island.

Colonel DIXON. That is correct, sir.

General CHORPENING. I do not believe you were here, Senator, when we stated that the benefit-to-cost ratio is 1.86. It is very well justified.

ILLINOIS WATERWAY, CALUMET-SAG CHANNEL, ILL.

ESTIMATED COST

Colonel DIXON. The next project is the Illinois Waterway, the Calumet-Sag Channel, authorized by the 1946 and 1945 River and Harbor Acts.

The estimated cost of the project is $126,343,000. The benefit-cost ratio is 2.55. I know that the committtee has heard much in the past about the Calumet-Sag project. This is that serious bottleneck in one of the ties between the inland waterway, the Mississippi system, and the Great Lakes. It is a narrow channel, averaging about 80 feet in width. The project envisions widening of that bottleneck. Senator HAYDEN. This is between what two points?

Colonel DIXON. Lake Michigan, sir, and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal which runs into the Mississippi River. I have a map before me, if you care to glance at it.

It involves principally the alteration of certain railroad bridges and the widening of this canal.

Senator RUSSELL. Did I understand you to say $126 million?
Colonel DIXON. That is correct, sir.

Senator RUSSELL. How far does it go, sir?

Colonel DIXON. The length is approximately 14 miles, sir, but it is in the city of Chicago, a very congested industrial area, and a great number of bridges cross there. My recollection is that there are 24 railroad bridges involved in the Federal part of this project. The local interests have the responsibility, sir, of altering the highway bridges. We estimate the cost to the local people as being in excess of $55 million; so they have a considerable interest.

Senator RUSSELL. Is that included in this $126 million?

Colonel DIXON. No, sir; that is in addition to the $126 million. That was the Federal cost.

General CHORPENING. This is a somewhat similar situation to the Cleveland Harbor.

Senator RUSSELL. I recall that quite well. I did not think that that cost ran quite so high.

General CHORPENING. This is higher; that is true, sir, but it is a somewhat similar situation, which we are proposing to correct.

WATERWAY TRAFFIC

Senator RUSSELL. What sized ships do you contemplate taking through there, when it is completed?

Colonel DIXON. The typical barge traffic that is used on our inland waterway system.

Senator RUSSELL. Can you get a barge through there!

Colonel DIXON. Yes, but it is a narrow channel. It is essentially one-way traffic. The project envisions widening it. It is a heavily

used connection at the present time. We had estimates that the maximum that this particular project could economically handle in its present condition was 1 million tons. Actually, it is now handling 3 million tons, but under very difficult conditions.

MARKLAND LOCKS AND DAM, INDIANA, KENTUCKY AND OHIO

AMOUNT REQUESTED

Colonel DIXON. The next project is Markland locks and dam on the Ohio River. We are asking for planning money in the amount of $50,000.

Markland is a replacement lock on the Ohio River. It will replace five obsolete locks that were built approximately in 1911.

The estimate of cost is $77,112,000. The benefit-cost ratio is 1.3 to 1. To date we have had $379,500 for planning. This budget request will allow us to continue that planning.

The Ohio River, as the chairman knows so well, is a very, very heavily trafficked waterway. There are about 56 million tons carried on the Ohio. This project involves a vital section of the Ohio River system and will replace five locks and dams.

GREENUP LOCK AND DAM, KENTUCKY AND OHIO

ESTIMATED COST

Colonel DIXON. The next project is a similar project, again on the Ohio River, Greenup locks and dam, authorized under the authority of the 1909 River and Harbor Act. The cost is $64,980,000 with a benefit-cost ratio of 1.15 to 1. To date we have had $370,800 for planning. We are requesting $50,000; $70,000 was appropriated last year. This request of $50,000 would allow us to go to construction when Congress appropriates the necessary construction funds.

The project will replace four locks and dams on the Ohio River and dam No. 1 on the Big Sandy River, again a replacement of obsolete locks and dams.

Greenup Lock will be a modern lock with a large-sized lock chamber 110 feet by 1,200 feet. The tonnage for this particular lock system was 142 million tons in 1952.

Senator RUSSELL. Of what does that tonnage consist?

Colonel DIXON. It is quite a varied tonnage. There is much oil hauled on the Ohio and much coal. There is a considerable development in steam plants along the Ohio River, which fosters a large coal traffic.

Senator RUSSELL. Will this improvement, when completed, enable the use of larger ships or a greater volume of ships?

Colonel DIXON. Greater volume, sir.

Senator RUSSELL. Is there a bottleneck now in getting it all through, or are the locks dilapidated?

Colonel DIXON. The locks are dilapidated. It is a combination of the locks being small and being in a dilapidated condition. In replacing the locks you have only one locking operation, whereas today you have four.

General CHORPENING. Maintenance on those old locks is becoming ever higher.

Senator RUSSELL. That is true everywhere we have water navigation. We hear about it in nearly every hearing where they want new locks, whether Ohio, Alabama, or Tennessee.

Colonel DIXON. Yes, sir.

PLAQUEMINE-MORGAN CITY, ALTERNATE ROUTE, LOUISIANA

ESTIMATED COST

Colonel DIXON. The next project is the Plaquemine-Morgan City alternate route, in the State of Louisiana, authorized in 1946. It has a cost of $24,350,000 with a benefit-cost ratio of 1.37 to 1.

We are asking for $80,000 to continue the planning. This amount would allow us to be in a position to go to construction.

The project is an alternate route from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway to the Mississippi River, running from Morgan City to Baton Rouge

At the present time the traffic has to go through the city of New Orleans, which is very congested, or go through a very small lock, not usable when the Mississippi River gets high. Using the Plaquemine-Morgan City route will cut the mileage from Morgan City to Baton Rouge by about 160 miles from that by the way of New Orleans. Senator RUSSELL. What is the estimated cost?

Colonel DIXON. $24,350,000, sir. The principal cost is in the lock. There is also a dredge cut.

HILDEBRAND LOCK AND DAM, W. Va.

ESTIMATED COST

Colonel DIXON. The final project this morning for planning money is the Hildebrand lock and dam on the Monongahela River in West Virginia. The lock is located approximately 108 miles above Pittsburgh.

This project was authorized in 1950 and is estimated to cost $13,912,000. It has a benefit-to-cost ratio of 1.8 to 1. To date we have had $117,000, of which $35,000 was appropriated last year, for planning. We are requesting $40,000, which would put the planning in such a condition that we could go to construction.

Hildebrand lock and dam will replace locks and dams 12 and 13 on the Monongahela River. The present locks were constructed in the period 1901-03. They are 56 by 182 feet. The new one will be 84 by 600 feet. It will provide the same facilities for navigation as presently exist elsewhere on the Monongahela River.

Senator RUSSELL. I notice here something that is very rare before this committee. We always have increases of estimates in construction. In this one you have come down about $2 million. How do you account for that?

Colonel DIXON. In this case the estimated cost has decreased, Senator.

Senator RUSSELL. That is a very rare thing, and I think it is noteworthy enough to put it into the record.

Colonel Dixon. That is a good point. I am glad that you called that to our attention. The difference of $1,833,000 between the pres

ent approved estimate and the latest estimate submitted to Congress is a result of refinement of the project estimates, on the basis of our design studies, which have offset price-level advances. In other words, as we got further into our planning we have been able to refine the design and come up with what we think is a sounder estimate.

MAINTENANCE OF LOCKS

Senator RUSSELL. I notice that those locks are about 50 years old. I suppose that the maintenance on them is considerable now.

Colonel DIXON. Yes; very high. They were built in 1901 and 1903, and have outlived their useful lives. The Monongahela Waterway is a heavily trafficked waterway, 32 million tons annually, sir. Senator RUSSELL. I am familiar with that.

Colonel DIXON. That is all of the navigation planning projects, sir.

SAVANNAH HARBOR MAINTENANCE

Senator RUSSELL. While we have this little interim here, General Chorpening, do you have any of your data here on Savannah Harbor? A group of people from Savannah talked to me yesterday about the situation there and the need for an increase in funds for maintenance. General CHORPENING. I am generally quite well aware of the situation that does exist at Savannah Harbor, Senator. As a matter of fact I talked to, I believe, four gentlemen who were in my office a few days ago, about that. It is a serious situation that we have in Savannah. As I pointed out to them, we are facing a somewhat similar situation in so many parts of the Nation at this time. I could mention so many of the principal and minor ports where, in recent years, the navigation has been increasing and our maintenance funds have remained about the same, and, of course, what we can do with our funds, is continually decreasing.

We are not able to keep more than a very few of the waterways and harbors of this country to the project widths and depths for which they were authorized, and it has been with us a matter of allocating funds in our best judgment, to keep them all operating, but we have not been able to keep anyone, it seems, 100 percent satisfied. We have done our best, Senator.

Senator RUSSELL. Of course, you never keep them 100 percent satisfied, because all of them have new developments that they want, in addition to maintenance, but I was told that the situation there has become so serious that it actually has affected the entrance into the harbor of ships over, I believe, 28-foot draft, that they could not get in, and that some of the ships could not load there.

General CHORPENING. They are having that difficulty, and we have, as a matter of fact in my office, a recommendation from our district and division engineers that it would be economical to dredge 6 feet over depth there rather than the 2 feet that we normally dredge. I am in agreement with that if we had adequate funds to do so, but, considering the overall situation that I know exists in other parts of the Nation, we just have not been able, working on an equitable basis, nationwide, to put more funds into that harbor.

Senator RUSSELL. That is true everywhere we have water navigation. We hear about it in nearly every hearing where they want new locks, whether Ohio, Alabama, or Tennessee. Colonel DIXON. Yes, sir.

PLAQUEMINE-MORGAN CITY, ALTERNATE ROUTE, LOUISIANA

ESTIMATED COST

Colonel DIXON. The next project is the Plaquemine-Morgan City alternate route, in the State of Louisiana, authorized in 1946. It has a cost of $24,350,000 with a benefit-cost ratio of 1.37 to 1.

We are asking for $80,000 to continue the planning. This amount would allow us to be in a position to go to construction.

The project is an alternate route from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway to the Mississippi River, running from Morgan City to Baton Rouge

At the present time the traffic has to go through the city of New Orleans, which is very congested, or go through a very small lock, not usable when the Mississippi River gets high. Using the Plaquemine-Morgan City route will cut the mileage from Morgan City to Baton Rouge by about 160 miles from that by the way of New Orleans. Senator RUSSELL. What is the estimated cost?

Colonel DIXON. $24,350,000, sir. The principal cost is in the lock. There is also a dredge cut.

HILDEBRAND LOCK AND DAM, W. Va.

ESTIMATED COST

Colonel DIXON. The final project this morning for planning money is the Hildebrand lock and dam on the Monongahela River in West Virginia. The lock is located approximately 108 miles above Pittsburgh.

This project was authorized in 1950 and is estimated to cost $13,912,000. It has a benefit-to-cost ratio of 1.8 to 1. To date we have had $117,000, of which $35,000 was appropriated last year, for planning. We are requesting $40,000, which would put the planning in such a condition that we could go to construction.

Hildebrand lock and dam will replace locks and dams 12 and 13 on the Monongahela River. The present locks were constructed in the period 1901-03. They are 56 by 182 feet. The new one will be 84 by 600 feet. It will provide the same facilities for navigation as presently exist elsewhere on the Monongahela River.

Senator RUSSELL. I notice here something that is very rare before this committee. We always have increases of estimates in construction. In this one you have come down about $2 million. How do you account for that?

Colonel DIXON. In this case the estimated cost has decreased, Sen

ator.

Senator RUSSELL. That is a very rare thing, and I think it is noteworthy enough to put it into the record.

Colonel Dixon. That is a good point. I am glad that you called that to our attention. The difference of $1,833,000 between the pres