UNDERWATER ROCK BLASTING, REMOVAL DEEPENS CHANNEL

Guided by a computerized surveying system mounted on a barge, an Illinois contractor is blasting rock underwater and following up with excavation tools that include a massive 460,000-lb backhoe packing a 13.5-cu-yd bucket. The job includes deepening some 300 acres of Mississippi River channel near Thebes, Illinois, to 9 ft minimum at low water. This year and last, the Mississippi River has dropped to near-record lows, and has been nearly impassable in some areas for large barge tows. The river bottom has rock ledges and pinnacles averaging 10 ft high and ranging up to 30 ft. Rock types include limestone, platinum limestone, shale, granite, and sandstone. A few boulders range from 120 to 150 tons. This article provides details of the survey and excavation by the contractor, Luhr Brothers Inc., Columbia, Illinois, working under a $17 million contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/03620506
• Corporate Authors:

  Cahners Publishing Company

  275 Washington Street
  Newton, MA  United States  02158-1630
• Authors:
  • Brown, D C
• Publication Date: 1990-10

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Photos;
• Pagination: p. 42-44
• Serial:
  • Highways and Heavy Construction
  • Volume: 133
  • Issue Number: 13
  • Publisher: Cahners Publishing Company
  • ISSN: 0362-0506

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Channels (Waterways); Information processing; Presplitting (Blasting); Rock excavation; Surveying; Underwater excavation
• Geographic Terms: Mississippi River
• Subject Areas: Construction; Highways; Marine Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00601433
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Nov 30 1990 12:00AM