Debris is tangled around a navigation aid near Thunderbolt. Photo by the U.S. Coast Guard.
SAVANNAH, Ga. – While many Savannah residents clogged roads returning home following Hurricane Matthew last week, a small group worked to ensure a major artery into the city — the Savannah River – remained clear. Continue reading
If August’s precipitation – the best of 2016 thus far – raised anyone’s hopes, September officially dashed them. Continue reading
Nearly two decades in the making, the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, or SHEP, continues to gain momentum with more contracts awarded and new ground broken.
In addition to progress made on the Raw Water Storage Impoundment and Dissolved Oxygen Injection System, work advanced this month on the dike raising and tide gate removal mitigation feature.
Herve Cody Construction has completed 29 percent of raising the back dike for Dredged Material Containment Area 14A. The dike is being raised five feet to prepare for inner harbor dredging and is scheduled to be complete in May 2017.
DCMAs 14A and 14B, which lie on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River near Elba Island, comprise the potential future home of the Jasper Ocean Terminal.
Two weeks ago, De Moya / Continental Joint Venture was awarded a contract to remove the tide gate along the Back River just north of Hutchinson Island. Workers will remove the tide gate and its related abutments and embankments to return the river to its original width.
This image shows the river widening that will occur marked out in red.
According to Spencer Davis, senior project manager for SHEP, the tide gate was originally installed in the 1970s to reduce shoaling in the Savannah River’s main channel. The gates would open and let the incoming tide come upstream but close when the tide ebbed, forcing water to return via the main navigation channel, scouring it out. The area just downstream of the tide gate (sediment basin) was deepened to allow more sediment to settle out of the water during the slack tides.
The actual gates, but not the support structure, were removed in the 1990s.
Other updates
CSS Georgia: Archaeologists at Texas A&M University’s Conservation Research Laboratory continue to process and conserve artifacts from the CSS Georgia. Divers are expected to return in the summer of 2017 to recover the remaining sections of the ironclad’s casemate.
Entrance channel dredging: After one year, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company has completed 24 percent of entrance channel dredging. The entrance channel extends from Fort Pulaski 13 miles into the Atlantic Ocean. Once dredging is complete, the entrance channel will extend an additional seven miles, for a total of 20 miles, into the Atlantic Ocean.
For updates on these projects and more, visit our SHEP website.
~ Jeremy S. Buddemeier, Corporate Communications Office
SAVANNAH, Ga. – The three reservoirs operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the upper Savannah River entered Drought Level 2 as of 6 a.m. Sept. 19, when the level of the J. Strom Thurmond Lake dipped to 323.97 feet above mean sea level (ft-msl). When one of the reservoirs enters a drought level the other two also enter that drought level.
Any level below 324 ft-msl at Lake Thurmond or below 654 ft-msl at Lake Hartwell will activate Drought Level 2. Lake Hartwell’s level measured 654.81 ft-msl Monday afternoon. Continue reading
Now almost 30 percent complete, the raw-water storage impoundment dike walls are currently four feet above ground level. With a circumference of two-thirds of a mile, they will be 29 feet high, encircle 17 acres and hold 97 million gallons of water when complete. Continue reading
Rainfall in all three reservoir sub-basins exceeded normal in August. While no single event provided the basin with massive runoff, the steady and consistent small rain events kept the reservoirs at a relatively flat level.
Leading the charge: Hartwell with observed rainfall and Russell with percentage. Continue reading
A look at the downstream side of the Richard B. Russell Dam. USACE photo.
(A version of this article originally appeared on this blog May 29, 2013.)
The youngest of Savannah District’s three multipurpose dam and lake projects, Richard B. Russell Dam differs from Hartwell and Thurmond, not just size and appearance, but also in functionality. Here are the three factors that make Russell unique: Continue reading
If the first three days in August are any indication, things could be looking up for the Savannah River Basin.
Last month, on the other hand, the only reason to look up was in a fit of frustration. Russell’s take was especially bleak, netting only 2.2 inches compared to its 4.3 inch average. Hartwell and Thurmond each received 3.1 inches, just 60 and 71 percent of their monthly averages, respectively. Continue reading
(Above: Les Rice guides visitors through a quick tour of the J. Strom Thurmond Dam.)
AUGUSTA, Ga. – J. Strom Thurmond Dam currently operates at 98 percent proficiency but its operators are expected to perform above this percentage.
Operator Trainee Les Rice routinely meets these lofty expectations inside an examination room where he must demonstrate working knowledge of complex power systems and operations or risk losing his only source of income. Continue reading
