side channels to enable boats to reach special points on the river bank. In the opinion of the district officer such facilities should be provided by private individuals or local authorities, and therefore he believes the locality unworthy of improvement by the United States in any manner other than that now provided for in the existing project. The division engineer expresses concurrence in this view. 5. Interested parties were informed of the unfavorable tenor of the district officer's report and given an opportunity of submitting their views to the board, but no communications on the subject have been received. 6. From the facts presented, it appears that the existing project for the Illinois River provides adequately for through commerce, and that the improvement now desired at Meredosia is in the nature of a terminal or auxiliary channel which should be furnished by local interests. The board therefore reports, in concurrence with the views of the district officer and the division engineer, that it is not advisable at this time for the United States to undertake any further improvement of the Illinois River at Meredosia than is provided for by the existing project. 7. In compliance with law, the board reports that there are no questions of terminal facilities, water power, or other related subjects which could be coordinated with the suggested improvement in such manner as to render the work advisable in the interests of commerce and navigation. For the board: W. M. BLACK, PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION OF ILLINOIS RIVER AT MEREDOSIA, ILL. UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE, From: The District Engineer Officer. To: The Chief of Engineers, United States Army (Through the Division Engineer). Subject: Preliminary examination of Illinois River at Meredosia, Ill. 1. In compliance with instructions contained in letter dated March 18, 1913, from the office of the Chief of Engineers, Washington, D. C., and the provisions of section 2, act of Congress approved March 4, 1913, the following report is submitted on an examination of channel of Illinois River at Meredosia, Ill. 2. The town of Meredosia, Ill., is located on the left bank of the Illinois River, 71 miles from its mouth, 112 miles from St. Louis, Mo., by river, and 91 miles south of Peoria, Ill., by river. It had a population in 1910 of 951, a number of stores, churches, electric-light plant, and one elevator. At present there is no boat warehouse. The surrounding country is farm land, melons and sweet potatoes being raised in large quantities on the east side of the river, while on the west side the river is leveed for several miles up and down stream from the town, and grain and stock are the principal products. The town is also a center for mussel shellers. 3. The town is situated on a knoll above overflow, on the concave side of a bend in the river. The channel of the river opposite Meredosia lies along the convex side of the bend, and at low stages of the river it is impossible for packet boats to reach the Meredosia landing. Freight is therefore landed on the river bank opposite Meredosia and carried to the town from there in small boats. The channel in front of the town was improved by the United States in 1896, by dredging a cut 156 feet wide and 7 feet deep for a length of 1,200 feet upstream from the railroad bridge. This cut has shoaled up but little since it was made. 4. The improvement desired in the channel at Meredosia is to have its location changed from the convex to the concave bank of the river, so that boats will be able to land at Meredosia at all stages of the river. This change of location would necessitate the dredging of a cut about 2,500 feet long, and the cut would have a tendency to fill or shoal up more rapidly than the present channel. (It appears that contrary to the usual conditions in other rivers, the low-water channel in a bend of the Illinois River lies nearer to the convex than the concave bank.) An alternative form of improvement is to dredge a channel from the main channel to the Meredosia landing, having a depth of 7 feet at low water and a length of not less than 1,800 feet. Such a channel necessarily traversing the direction of the river current would shoal rapidly and probably in a few seasons be entirely obliterated. 5. The present means of transportation at Meredosia are the Wabash Railroad and the boats of the Eagle Packet Co., the Streckfus Line, Columbia Excursion Co., D. M. Swain & Sons, and D. H. Wisherd. The Wabash Railroad passes through the town and crosses the river about three-eighths of a mile downstream from the landing, and furnishes communication with all eastern and southern markets, as well as points on the Mississippi River. The principal shipments by rail are grain, stock, melons, and farm products, mussel shells, and general merchandise. This office has made efforts to secure a statement of the tonnage of receipts and shipments from the railway company and the promoters of the proposed improvement, but has received no response to such inquiries. 6. The Eagle Packet Co. operates one packet boat, the Bald Eagle, between St. Louis, Mo., and Peoria, Ill. The other steamboat lines mentioned operate only excursion boats out of Meredosia. Shipments by water consist principally of grain, general merchandise, and stock, and amount to about 500 tons annually. Shippers claim that this quantity would be more than doubled if the packet boats could land at Meredosia during the entire season of navigation. Previous to four years ago, large quantities of grain were shipped from Meredosia to Pekin, Ill., and St. Louis, Mo., by river. About that time an elevator company in Toledo, Ohio, purchased the elevator, bought grain along the river, brought it to Meredosia in barges, transferred it to cars, and shipped it to Toledo. The elevator was destroyed by fire about a year ago, and receipts of grain by water have been discontinued. The existing elevator is owned by a farmers elevator company, which appears to be making no effort to secure or ship grain by water. Some merchandise is brought from Keokuk by rail, transferred to boat, and carried to points on the lower river. It is, however, not billed through. 7. The Wabash Railroad Co. has a switch track on the river bank which could be readily used for transferring freight directly between boats and cars, but there seems to be no likelihood of this business developing to any large extent. 8. Freight rates by water between Meredosia and other river points are somewhat less than the rail rates between the same points. For example, rail rates on groceries from St. Louis, Mo., are from 15.9 cents to 32 cents and from Peoria 14 6 cents to 28 9 cents, according to classification. The boat rates are 15 cents from both points on all classes of groceries. 9. The Illinois River is now under improvement by the United States, and the approved project provides for a channel 7 feet deep at low water and 200 feet wide in the section of the river near Meredosia. No work has been done elsewhere under this project than in the main river channel, except under separate and special appropriations. No plans or proposals have ever been made by Government officials for the improvement of this river by side channels to enable boats to reach special points on the river bank, such channels being unnecessary for the general improvement. The work required to be done at Meredosia is, in my opinion, in the nature of terminal facilities which should be provided by private individuals or local authorities and not by the United States Government. 10. I am therefore of the opinion that the channel of the Illinois River at Meredosia, Ill., is not worthy of improvement by the United States in any manner other than that now provided for in the existing project. GEO. A. ZINN, Lieutenant Colonel, Corps of Engineers. [First indorsement.] OFFICE OF DIVISION ENGINEER, WESTERN DIVISION, To the CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, UNITED STATES ARMY: Concurring in the opinion of the district engineer officer, as expressed in paragraph 10, that the channel of the Illinois River at Meredosia, Ill., is not worthy of improvement by the United States in any manner other than that now provided for in the existing project. C. McD. TOWNSEND, Colonel, Corps of Engineers. [For report of the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors, see p. 2.] |