Plant Vogtle, Could Augusta Get An Inland Port Soon? (Atlanta: transfer, club)

[lilmusket]

Plus ships could not travel up the savannah, the river is not large enough. Plus it has numerous treacherous sandbars, Believe me I have travelled down the river to Savannah. You could get more containers on a train then on a small barge capable of going up the savannah.

[Hot_Mike]

Who said we would use small barges? The Savannah is a good size for this, it not too small if we dredge it. When you are on water weight doesnt matter and the river is free of traffic. BTW, doing by truck, on the road is not cheaper , guy. It a known factThe sandbar are on the other side of Augusta. You would that know if you traveled down the river. As we speak they sending barges upstream to the Plant Vogtle site.

[Hot_Mike]

I read this in a TIMES article about the Intracoastal Waterway in the Gulf;

The waterway has also opened up the Gulf's vast natural resources at bargain-basement prices. By using strings of heavily laden barges, businessmen can ship goods north and south at rates anywhere from 20% to 50% cheaper than by rail or truck.

How deep you think a water needs to be for a large amount of goods-filled barges to travel with no trouble?

[Hot_Mike]

Whetsell's study indicates the project would require a channel nine feet deep and 200 feet wide to enable two barges to pass. Such a channel existed for many years and could easily be created again, he said.
Plan proposes shipping up Savannah River | SavannahNow.com

O&M - Savannah River Below Augusta, GA (http://www.sas.usace.army.mil/projects/projects/srba.htm - broken link)

[lilmusket]

The savannah is NOT large enough for large ships, it just isn't.. not even large barges. It is no where near as big as navigable rivers like the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri. The only time the Savannah had significant water traffic was during the cotton boom, when Augusta was a large inland cotton market, but trains eventually siphoned away much of that traffic. It is more feasible to transport containers to Augusta by train or truck.
Btw, the intracoastal waterway hugs the coast, it is not an inland waterway. A case could be made for pleasure cruises down The Savannah. I think that could work, especially if they could have a casino, a large scale riverport in Augusta is just not going to happen, not in teh 21st century.

[GeorgiaTransplant]

Greenville, SC got an inland port in 2005. I don't see what the big deal is.




















[this was tongue-in-cheek to G-man: I know Greenville isn't on a navigable river]

[lilmusket]

as mentioned earlier, inland ports do not have to be on rivers.. containers are shipped from a seaport by train to an inland port where many port functions such as customs inspections, etc can be carried out.. in turn, this frees up space at the seaport




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[this was tongue-in-cheek to G-man: I know Greenville isn't on a navigable river][/quote]

[Hot_Mike]

Its just cheap by waterway.

[gaduchman]

Originally Posted by lilmusket

The savannah is NOT large enough for large ships, it just isn't.. not even large barges. It is no where near as big as navigable rivers like the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri. The only time the Savannah had significant water traffic was during the cotton boom, when Augusta was a large inland cotton market, but trains eventually siphoned away much of that traffic. It is more feasible to transport containers to Augusta by train or truck.

Get a reality check: The Illinois River isn't that wide in most places except where it meets the Mississippi . Dozens of barges make the trip everyday all the way from Chicago on the Sanitary Canal and DesPlaines River to Alton. Barge strings are two wide and others three wide and seven long. The minimum navigation depth is 7ft and they have several locks in which they need to break up the string in order to move them thru.

The Chattahoochee above Lake Seminole is also narrow, but deeper and it doesn't stop the barges from ascending to Eufala and points higher.

A two barge tow carries the same cubic freight as 80 rail cars or 300 40ft truck trailers. And it does it more efficiently.

[Hot_Mike]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c7/Starved_Rock_Lock_%28COE%29_tow_downbound.jpg (broken link)