Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway
The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway ( Tenn-Tom for short ) connects the Tennessee River in Tennessee with the upper reaches of the Tombigbee River in the state of Alabama and has a length of 376 km and is 120 m wide. The project moved a greater amount of earth than when the Panama Canal was built . The height difference of 104 m is overcome via 10 locks , each 193 m long and 33.5 m wide. The locks can accommodate push convoys with eight barges.
As part of his "Southern Strategy", President Richard Nixon decided in 1971 to begin construction of the waterway by the United States Army Corps of Engineers . After the symbolic groundbreaking ceremony, however, various environmental processes led to 7 years without construction progress. After Jimmy Carter took office , he planned to end various hydraulic engineering projects. However, a public support campaign resulted in Carter declaring the waterway a major national project. After 12 years of construction and costs of almost 2 billion US dollars , the waterway was completed on December 12, 1984.
The project was seen as an example of church tower politics because of its high costs but dubious benefits . After its completion, it was hardly used for years. It was not until the drought in the USA in 1988 that inland shipping turned to the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Schönknecht / Gewiese: On rivers and canals, 1988. P. 205. Shipping in the USA
- ^ History
- ↑ Mario Martini: The market as an instrument of sovereign distribution control: possibilities and limits of a market-controlled state administration of the shortage . Mohr Siebeck, 2008, ISBN 978-3-16-149332-4 , p. 353 ( Google Books ).