River Tow Needs for Maneuvering Room on the Upper Mississippi River.
Abstract
This report is a project summary describing the preparation and conduct of a simulator experiment in tow maneuvering on the Upper Mississippi River. The experiment was designed to determine whether substantial risk reduction benefits could be achieved with some amount of additional maintenance dredging in the Upper Mississippi River. It was stimulated by concern that safety would decrease with a change in dredging policy that would effectively reduce the channel dimensions. The study was limited to a single 4.5 mile area below Wabasha, Minnesota, from mile 755.5 to 760 in low water, high flow rate conditions. Two river pilots each made twenty runs under various controlling channel dimensions: widths of 300 feet versus 400 feet and depths of 11 feet versus 13 feet. The findings clearly indicate that substantial reductions of grounding risk would result from maintaining the channel at not less than 400 foot width in bends. For the river area examined, this would require relatively modest increases in dredging, and would not require any changes in dredging regulations. This study did not fully examine effects of two way traffic or significant channel deepening. Originator-supplied keywords: River towboats, Maneuvering, Channel design, Simulation, Marine simulators, Hydrodynamics, Dredging, Marine safety, Mississippi River.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1985
- Accession Number
- ADA154686