Quincy engineer Mike Klingner says the time may be right to consider building a major new tourist attraction on Quincy's riverfront. Click Here.
The group envisions a $40 million to $50 million center overlooking the river. It would feature an elaborate aquarium along with a series of educational areas offering insight into a wide range of river-related topics and issues.
The $20 million riverfront condominium project, which the city considers the cornerstone of a riverfront renaissance, is on hold while developers wait out the nation's economic downturn.
Sheila Morgan of Shortridge Construction confirmed Friday morning that the project has been delayed indefinitely.
"It's just on hold until after the financial mess straightens out," Morgan said. "We would be hopeful late winter or early spring (to resume), but it depends on how long this thing drags on."
Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced Tuesday that a new campaign will highlight the success of the Smoke-free Illinois Act. He said there will be ads on television and radio about how the smoking ban has improved lives.
“People in F*****g Illinois no longer have to put their F*****g health at risk while at F*****g work or when they go out to a F*****g restaurant, F*****g bowling alley or other F*****g public place,” said Blagojevich.
Sending the warmest Christmas wishes to you and your family.
As the Holiday Season is upon us, we find ourselves reflecting on the past year and on those who have helped to shape this blog and your opinions expressed here. We value our relationship with you and look forward to continued blogging with you in the year to come.
We wish you a very happy Holiday Season and a New Year filled with peace and prosperity.
Reading the QHW 12/7 article on "Going Hydro" finally prompted me to dig into this for more than several reasons There is a lot of talk but very little proof that this will work. I hear and read lots of "I Think".
Let me tell you of what "I Think". Some of this is going to be cut and paste for two reasons: One, no since re-typing it, and Two, I'm lazy.
First to explain how hydro power works:
Flow and Head The first step in assessing the feasibility of any hydroelectric system is to determine the amount of power that you can obtain from the stream at the site. The power available at any instant is primarily a product of the flow volume and "head." Flow volume is typically measured in cubic feet per second (cfs) or gallons per minute (gpm). Higher flow means more available power.
Head is a measure of the pressure of falling water, and is a function of the vertical distance that water drops and the characteristics of the channel, or pipe, through which it flows. Higher head means more available power. The higher the head the better, because less water is needed to produce a given amount of power. If less water is needed, then smaller, more efficient, and less costly turbines and piping can be used.
Hydroelectric sites are broadly categorized as low or high head sites. "Low head" typically refers to a change in elevation of less than 10 feet (3 meters). A vertical drop of less than 2 feet (0.61 meters) will probably make a hydroelectric system unfeasible.A high flow rate can compensate for low head, but a larger and more costly turbine will be necessary. It may be difficult to find a turbine that will operate efficiently under very low head and low flow.
In simpler terms, it converts the gravity of water falling into power.
Now a little research on Lock and Dam 21 tells us that:
Lock dimensions are 110-feet wide by 600-feet long with additional provisions for
an auxiliary lock. Normal upper pool elevation is 470.0, approximately 16 feet
above the tail waters of the dam at low water. When both pools are at their
normal depths, the difference in elevation is reduced to 11 feet or less
The maximum lift is 10.5 feet with an average lift of 6.55 feet.
The movable dam has 10 submersible, elliptical Tainter gates (20-feet high and
64-feet long) and three submersible roller gates (20-feet high and 100-feet long).
The dam system also includes two earth and sand-filled transitional dikes, and a
submersible earth dike.
What’s this mean? The maximum fall of water on a good day with the wind out of the south, normal rainfall, no spring runoff will be at best -10 feet.
Footnote on the Lock and Dam. For those of you that have seen the Missouri side of the “dam” it’s quite a disappointment.It’s nothing more that a concrete dike there and if the water reaches the top, it just runs over it.Kinda looks like the COE ran out of money and just filled in the rest of the dam with rock. Looks impressive from the Illinois side.
Now some more:
A series of 29 locks and dams on the upper Mississippi, most of which were built in the 1930s, is designed primarily to maintain a 9 ft (2.7 m) deep channel for commercial barge traffic. The lakes formed are also used for recreational boating and fishing. The dams make the river deeper and wider but do not stop it. No flood control is intended. During periods of high flow, the gates, some of which are submersible, are completely opened and the dams simply cease to function.
So.When the dams cease to function, so does our $200 million dollar hydroelectric plant.How often does this happen?
Since I wanted to see just what the fall was on a yearly basis, I copied some info from the COE web site on 2007 Lock and Dam Pool 21 and tailwater levels and imported them into a Excel.
First tab/page is 2007 Pool, Second tab/page is Tailwater, Third tab/page is the “fall”/difference/head between the pool and tailwater.Falls less than 2 foot are colored in red.Falls between 2 and 5 feet are in Yellow, Falls greater than 7 are in Green.
I think that there has to be a better way to spend millions of taxpayer money on something that is more dependable that this.
I’m not a licensed engineer but this technology looks a little better for the Mighty Mississippi.
They currently have preliminary permits from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to study 59 sites on the river. Read it here.
It generates power with the flow of the river, not the fall. In times of flood when the flow increases, it would produce more power. The lock and dams on the Mississippi would be the perfect place for these. The river traffic is diverted to either end of the current dams and would not affect the barge traffic. The entire flow of the river could be channeled before the dam and go through the turbines before going through the gates.
If you could somehow incorporate these into the existing dams on the river.
While reading the on-line edition of who-give-a-shit-daily, I ran into this article.
"It's cost me over $400,000" to fight the lawsuit, Don Kirlin told the paper, "and after spending it, I only get to lose 12 percent of my property that I already owned."
City of Quincy has spent over $400,000 to fight the firing of 6 city employees and after spending it, They only have to re-hire 33 percent of the employees that they already fired.
The decision to hire Miquel Barcelo, 51, one of the world’s most highly paid abstract artists, to redesign a 14,000 sq ft dome has prompted furious protests from campaigners who believe it is an extravagant misuse of development funds.The work, at the headquarters of the UN Human Rights Council, will be unveiled this week by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain and Jose Luis Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister.
Ki-moon was overheard that "If I had to do it all over again, I would".
The lavishness of the project has also caused disquiet among UN staff. “It’s shocking that development aid was used for this,” said an employee.
"but I just didn't think it would ever cost that much money."
As we celebrate this year’s Veterans Day holiday, we should take the time to say, “thank you,” to a veteran. If you don’t know any veterans, take a quiet moment to appreciate what they have done – and continue to do – for our country.
If you read this blog regularly you know I don’t pick sides or try to influence anybody when it comes to politics. I believe in an open mind when it comes to voting and nobody can tell me or influence me on how I vote.
In fact, if you are a Registered Republican or Democrat you might as well stop reading this right here.I seriously think that if your candidate committed murder in the town square at high noon in full view, you would still vote for them.Sorry, I do not believe in someone committing their vote to a dedicated party.
First of all, DO NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING THE MEDIA TELLS YOU. With that being said, let me get this out of the way.I have no love for the media. You can’t tell me that the news is unbiased when advertising money is being shoved into their back pocket. The press today picks and chooses what it wants its audience to see or hear. They are as guilty of reporting news it wants you to know about as well as what it does not. Most media outlets that do business for a profit are going to swing their audiences in the direction of what the owners decide. Television, newspapers, internet and radio have more influence over election results than any group of voters.Current stats show that both presidential candidates have spent close to a BILLION dollars. Where do you think this money goes?Almost a third goes to the media outlets. Why?The media helps to sway voters a certain way.The more money a candidate has, the better his or her chances are of getting elected.I get my information from various sources. I do not believe to share or impose those sources on others.
Second.GET EDUCATED !If you hear or read something a candidate says that maybe does not sit well with you, go check it out.The internet has a wealth of information.What media to trust and who to believe?You have to make that determination on your own. “When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Third, VOTE FOR YOURSELF.I heard some of the dumbest things this election season. First up, “I must vote for X candidate, that’s what my union told me to do”. Well God forbid that the union starts losing membership income and tells you to go door to door and start selling Tupperware. Seriously. Act like you got a pair and vote for yourself.Last time I voted, it was me and a piece of paper.Only one person is allowed in the booth.
In second place for the dumbest thing I heard was “I’m voting for X candidate because I think he is going to win”WTF? This ain’t the 3rdrace at the Belmont Stakes! If you want to profit financially off the election go here.This election will determine the leader of the free world.For someone to treat it as pick-the-winner is beyond me.
Third place goes to the generation guy.I had to restrain myself from shoving dog do-do in his pie hole when he said this. “My grandpa was an X, my Dad is a X, so I am a X”.You can insert the party of choice in for the X for this one, but it is much more fun if you substitute the word moron.
And Lastly, GET OFF YOUR BUTT AND VOTE.Trust me.Nothing pisses me off more than to haul my carcass into the local voting place and use the same technology that has been in place since Washington was elected.And don’t feed me the crap about how the internet is not “secure” enough.
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