Chicago Harbor model built at ERDC

The Engineer Research and Development Center boasts a model that's definitely not your typical wood glue-type. This one, a 3-D, 1:120 physical model built inside one of ERDC's hangars, replicates over 18,000 feet of the Illinois shoreline. The physical model study, sponsored by the Chicago District, will figure out ways to reduce wave heights in the existing harbor. The study will include determining performance of the breakwater structures from past to future and damages to shoreline structures such as Navy Pier and the Jardine Water Treatment Plant.

"High waves can damage boats in the harbor," said Don Wadleigh, Construction-Operations Division. "Damage to boats and other watercraft moored in Monroe and DuSable harbors is also a possibility, as well as damage to the Jardine Water Purification Plant and Navy Pier."

According to Chris Katzenmiller, lead project team member, the model will enable the District to evaluate wave conditions in the harbor from three wave angles with varying wave heights and water levels.

The project, a part of the Chicago Harbor major rehabilitation report, will evaluate the performance of the outer and inner breakwaters during varying storm events. "Wave conditions in the harbor will be studied to determine damages to vessels, and safe operating conditions to vessels," Katzenmiller said. "The performance of the inner breakwaters will determine safe operating conditions for both Monroe and DuSable harbors."

Other project team members include Bill White, Project Management Branch; Mike Fisher, Plan Formulation Section; Tim Kroll, Civil Design Section, and volunteer Charlie Johnson, retired RD coastal engineer. Ray Bottin, research physical scientist, is the lead ERDC study investigator. ERDC has set up a webcam for online views of future model runs. The webcam and more information about the Chicago Harbor model study is available here.

The Chicago District is also planning to rehabilitate the Chicago Harbor Lock, which includes replacing gates, operating equipment and gate controls. A study and report was completed in 2001. The rehabilitation project has been authorized and is awaiting funding. Go to the Chicago District's Navigation page to find information about navigation projects operated and maintained by the Chicago District.

Looking for Navigation information in your region?

Here are a few examples:

• The Mississippi Valley Division River Stage web page links you to water management information for each of the six Districts under its jurisdiction: St. Paul, Rock Island, St. Louis, Memphis, Vicksburg, and New Orleans. At each of those sites you'll find information such as river stages by basin, historical data, precipitation tables, forecasts, and lock and dam information.
• The Mobile District Navigation Homepage provides Notices to Navigation Interests, lock maintenance schedules, hydrographic condition survey data, emergency lock closures, navigation charts and maps, and dredging schedules.
• The Philadelphia District Navigation page furnishes information about its navigation projects, lists the District's navigable waterways, and provides hydrographic survey data for waterways it maintains, along with information about the Corps Dredge McFarland.
• Get Walla Walla District Lock Data for the Columbia-Snake Rivers Inland Waterway.
• Find information about new and existing navigation projects in the Great Lakes Region, navigation reports and data, and how to obtain river charts on the Ohio River at the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division Navigation Page.

Navigation Study Interim Report Released

These measures include:

• Nonstructural measures such as congestion fees and traffic management.
• Structural measures such as guidewall extensions, lock extensions, and new locks, and Ecosystem restoration measures such as traffic impact prevention and reduction, channel modifications, systemic fish passage and water level management, and backwater, secondary channel, and island rehabilitation.
• The Waterways Journal, Aug 5, 2002 issue stated that industry advocates applauded the recommendation to advance the cause of lock modernization.

This Interim Report provides a history of past study activities, the purpose of the restructuring, initial plan formulation activities including establishment of goals, objectives and alternatives, and also identifies implementation issues. In addition, the Report contains preliminary conclusions that will be further developed in the feasibility study. The next step in the study is the completion of a Draft Feasibility Report in early 2004.

The Navigation Study Interim Report Executive Summary is available here online.

The complete report is also available here.

For more information about the Interim Report for the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway System Navigation Study, contact the project manager, Denny Lundberg, at (309) 794-5632, the Rock Island District, Public Affairs Office at (309) 794-5274.

Latest Research Technical Notes

CHETN-I-65, "Comparisons of Physical and Numerical Model Wave Predictions with Prototype Data at Morro Bay Harbor Entrance, California"

CHETN-I-66, "Grid Nesting with STWAVE"

CHETN-IV-41, "SMS Steering Module for Coupling Waves and Currents, 1: ADCIRC and STWAVE"

CHETN-IV-42, "Coupling of Regional and Local Circulation Models ADCIRC and M2D"

CHETN-IV-43, "SHOALS Toolbox: Software to Support Visualization and Analysis of Large, High-Density Data Sets"

CHETN-IV-44, "Inlet Spits and Maintenance of Navigation Channels"

CHETN-IV-45, "Comparison of Predicted and Measured Shoaling at Morro Bay Harbor Entrance, California"

CHETN-IV-46, "Deployment of Oceanographic Instruments in High-Energy Environments and Near Structures"

CHETN-IV-47, "Tidal Velocity Asymmetry at Inlets"

CHETN-VII-4, "Quantification of Bed-Load Transport on the Upper Mississippi River Using Multibeam Survey Data and Traditional Methods"

CHETN-IX-8, "General Guard Wall Design Considerations for Tow Entry and Exit"

CHETN-IX-9, "Mooring Model for Barge Tows in Lock Chamber"

CHETN-XIV-5, "Lessons Learned from Existing Projects on Shoaling in Harbors and Navigation Channels"

CHETN-XIV-6, "Potential Methods for Reducing Shoaling in Harbors and Navigation Channels"

CHETN-XIV-7, "SBAS-A: SBAS for ArcView Application"

Mark Your Calendars for the following Navigation Events

• 1-2, WEDA Midwest Chapter Meeting, Metairie, Louisiana
• 15-16, WEDA Gulf Coast Chapter Meeting, Metairie, Louisiana. Contact Charlie Setton (504-889-0182) or Karl Clark (504-862-1935) for further information or requests to give a paper.
• 21-25 Streambank Erosion/Protection PROSPECT Course - provides supervisors, project engineers and designers, and senior technicians with the latest practical knowledge and design criteria for streambank protection and erosion control. Find out how to sign up for this course at the USACE Professional Development Support Center.
• 27-30 California and the World Ocean '02, Santa Barbara, CA
• 29-31 Oceans '02 MTS/IEEE, Biloxi, MA

• 3-7 American Water Resources Association Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA
• 6-8, 2002 WEDA Pacific Chapter Conference, Oakland, California
• 8-15, 2002, Integrating Remote Sensing at the Global, Regional, and Local Scale, Denver, Colorado
• 9-13 GPS/GIS Applications PROSPECT Course - provides participants with a knowledge of the techniques for integrating field GPS spatial data into CADD/GIS/AM/FM databases. Functional elements supported by this course include: surveying, engineering, construction, navigation, master planning, and facility management. Find out how to sign up for this course at the USACE Professional Development Support Center.
• 17-20, 2002, First International Conference on Scour of Foundations, Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas

• 6-10 AGU 2002 Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA

• 6-9, 2003, Coastal GeoTools Spatial Technology Conference, Charleston, South Carolina
• 28-30, 2003, 6th International River Engineering Conference, Ahvaz, Iran