Musings of Navigating The Finite remainder of life from Porchville, with the hope of a glimpse of The Infinite

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Low Water At The Hulton Bridge

We borrowed a little of the Busman's cobalt Manitoba skies today.  So I stopped and got some photos of low water at the Hulton Bridge today.  Shall we compare them to the photos from April 30, 2011.  Click this link for High Water At the Hulton Bridge.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.


Note! Click on images to view full size.

Downstream, Bank at Riverview Park, 4/30/11















Downstream, Bank at Riverview Park, 7/27/11
















Steps at Riverview Park, 4/30/11















Steps At Riverview Park,  7/27/11















Looking Downstream Mid Channel, 4/30/11















Looking Downstream, Mid Channel, 7/27/11
















Looking Upstream, Nine Mile Island, 4/30/11















Looking Upstream, Nine Mile Island, 7/27/11















Red Nun Navigation Buoy, 4/30/11















Red Nun Navigation Buoy, 7/27/11
















Hulton Bridge, 4/30/11















Hulton Bridge, 7/27/11
















Passing Boat, Note Water Line on Bridge Pier, 7/27/11















Approaching Boat, 7/27/11
















Wake, 7/27/11















Image Credits:  

Photos Abovel: me

Photos Below: Pittsburgh Post Gazette various web pages.

Map: US Army Corps of Engineers, Pittsburgh District

Corp of Engineers Logo: Wikipedia, US Army Corps of Engineers

US Army Corps of Engineers
























































Edit 7-29-11:  In response to Busman's comment, here is a crappy map of the Pittsburgh District Flood Control Dams. The dams are the red triangles. The Allegheny River & watershed is the river system north and east of Pittsburgh. This is the water that would flow at the Hulton Bridge. The project pool level is controlled by 9 dams, Loyalhanna in the south east  to the Union City and Kinzua in the north.  The Kinzua is the largest dam in the Pittsburgh district.

The Monongahela River & watershed is directly south of Pittsburgh flowing north toward the city.  It is protected by the Stonewall Jackson, Tygart and Youghiogheny Dams.

The Ohio River, formed by the Allegheny and Monongahela flows west away from Pittsburgh.  The Corps has 4 dams on the Shenango, Mahoning, & Beaver River watersheds.

Why we have these dams:

Down Town Pittsburgh, 1936 St Patricks Day Flood, Before The Dams 

Down Town Pittsburgh 1936 Flood



Down Town Pittsburgh, June 1972, Hurricane Agnes, After The Dams Were Built

5 comments:

  1. Aren't those blue skies something else ?
    Having a wee bit of a drought are we ?
    Enjoy it !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Actually it is not as dry as the river levels would suggest. The Army Corps of Engineers can control the river levels remarkably well providing we are not having some sort of extended deluge. The Allegheny is navigable for about 70 river miles upstream from Pittsburgh to a town called Bradys Bend. The Corps is required by law to keep a 9 foot depth sailing channel for commercial river traffic. They maintain that depth by impounding and releasing water from a series of flood control dams in what is known as the Pittsburgh District. This is worthy of a post. But for the mean time, VW Bussman on behalf of the generous citizens of the United States of America, the kindness of the Obama Administration, the dutiful vigilance and professionalism of the United States Department of Defense, and the valiant effort of the United States Army Corps of Engineers St Paul District, and in recognition of international cooperation and friendship and honoring the longest undefended border in the world I Sextant present to you, sir, yes you, one of the fine and courageous citizens of Sanford of The Rural Municipality of MacDonald, of the Great Province of Manitoba, Canada True North Strong and Free, and great splasher, wader, and pumper of the mighty La Salle, I do hereby present The Flood Fight Handbook, 2009.

    http://www.lrp.usace.army.mil/documents/Corps_Flood-Fight_Handbook_2009.pdf

    May you read it with dry feet and good spirits. BTW how is the beer coming along?

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's some water in those old photo's. Eerily familiar of our watershed when water's on the rise in the spring and after we've had 5 inches of rain at one time. Would be nice if we had 9 foot navigable depth for the entire river length.......but....then again no.........all we would have then is a bunch of yahoos with power speed boats causing all sorts of havoc. The odd time when someone has a small boat and outboard motor on the river behind our place and they open her up....the wake from those boats starts to erode the shore line and mess up my dock and irrigation pump intake.
    The beer is actually very tasty. We made stout and ale. I am partial to strong tasting beers. With all this hot weather we are having it is disappearing at an alarming rate. Yikes !
    We bought two more kits, but haven't started them yet. I think we will need to tweak the process a tad but for a first time try....not too shabby.
    I'm geting tired of al this hot weather to tell the truth. Today it is supposed to be 31 C bit with humidex will feel like 41 C, .....wasted on me man. Anything over 23/24 C is over the top. If this is global warming...like they say it will be....hotter summers, bigger better floods, more extremes..............yeesh .......not my cup of tea or glass of beer.

    How things in your world ? Crazy weather ? Nice summer.
    Retirement working out for you ?

    ReplyDelete
  4. BTW......that US Army Corps of Engineers logo looks very much like the Wolfsburg Crest on my Volkswagen's. Google Wolfsburg Crest.....not exactly, but sure caught my eye. FWIW.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well in my world the weather is too damned hot and the A/C went out on the car. So I got to get that fixed. Retirement is great, I love it. With this hot weather though I am not getting anything done. Heat and MS don't mix. So I am relaxing. Damn your temps are up there are worse than ours!

    Your right there is a resemblance between the Corps of Engineers Logo and the Wolfenberg Crest.

    ReplyDelete