Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-08-11
HAS ESTIMA TES||
DIES MONIES MAKES PROGRESS
IN STRENGTHENING RIVER.
ENGINEER HAS PLANS AND FIGURES

CitizenS committee Employs 1overH'
ment Engineer-The New Channel
for the Coon River, the bikes and
Bridge Changes Will Cost $4,000.
While Ottumwa continues to talk
and present petitions and resolutions
to the city council in regard to
Strengthening the river for the proven
ton of disastrous floods in the future,
Des Moines has made better progress
and already had an estimate upon the
expense of providing new channel
for the Raccoon river, the building OF
concrete core dixie on each side OF
the channel and the moving and widen
ing of the bridges. A committee Of
citizens was organized recently and
the services of a government engineer
were secured, who has gone over the
grounds carefully and prepared plans
and specifications and estimates for
what he considers the best solution OF
the flood difficulty.
The Engineers Report.
The government engineer has in
formed the citizens committee that
the construction of this new channel
for the Coon will reduce the height OF
the Des Moines river above the juno
| ture six feet in twenty-four. That is,
last spring the Des Moines river guage
was twenty-four feet. If the channel
which is planned had been in operation
| the height of the. Des Moines river al
the Locust street bridge would have
been but eighteen feet.
The Des Moines could be eighteen
and do no harm at all. This has been
demonstrated repeatedly. 1t has been
at twenty-one feet and done no harm.
The feet above that, even the inches,
make the havoc.
The engineer has informed the COM
mittee that such diversion OF the
Coon will stop the floods back on it,
also From the West Ninth street
bridge to the juncture of the Coon and
Des Moines, the water is constantly
restricted and damned. 1t can't get
out by going forward and it backs over
the banks and backs toward the water
works and Valley Junction. Straight
en- the channel, it is said, and the wa
ter will rush away like a mill race.
To make the excavations and build
a concrete core dixie on each bank, of
the new channel of the Coon, as plan
ned by the engineer, and to move the
bridge, will require 100000.
| The assessed valuation of the land
| which will be required to be con-
demned for the new channel is exact
ly S11 900 It's actual value, therefore,
| is $4,000, approximately. 1t is
thought that on condemnation for such
a purpose as this appraisers would not
value at much, higher figure than
| the assessment. Sol0
I To dig the new channel, 10 move the
| Fifth street bridge to cover 1t. to add
a fif.y-foot span ito the Fifth street
/ bridge when moved, and to buy the
land, therefore, will cost approximate
| ly s15O,Oo0.
The New Channel.
The engineer is not guessing at these
/ figures, say the committee. He has
made the estimates according to math-
ematical calculations in hydrostatics.
/ The new channel of the Coon Will
leave the present channel Immediately
east of West Ninth street bridge and
| will make a semi-circle through Van
town and will strike the Des Moines
4 river, flowing almost parallel to, It, Just
north of the Great Western bridge. 1t
will cut out most of blocks four, seven
three. eight, nine, twelve, thirteen, eley-
en-, nineteen and twenty in South Des
Moines.
It's north bank will be at the point
now occupied by the south abutment
of the Fifth street bridge. This will
d necessitate moving this bridge. 1t is
4 planned to make the stream wider than
it now is, and to add fifty feet to the
Fifth street bridge. The Second street
1 bridge which is unsafe would have to
be abandoned No other bridge prob
Y lens are presented by the scheme. The
/ idea of making the new channel join
4 the Des Moines river below the Great
Western bridge and compel that COM
pany to erect second new structure
i over the Coon was abandoned. The
company would not consent to the
scheme unless the city would pay for
the bridge and its maintenance. In
vestigation showed it would cost about
4 $15O,0OO. The idea was given up.Then
4 the survey was made to change the
channel only between West Ninth and
the Great Western bridge, leaving out
only the Fifth street bridge.
!, The $150,000 of cost which is esti-
mated LOT Cne complete WORK, luciuueS
the purchase of dredging machinery
with which to do the work. This ma
chinery would still be owned by and
be in the possession Of the city after
the new channel of the Coon was
built.
Could Clean Out the River.
With this machinery all of the low
spots in the Des Moines river could
be disposed of. The islands which
floated down from above the dam a
few years ago when the dam went
out could be eliminated. The citizens
committee has this in view in the pre-
sentation Of the proposition to the city
authorities.
City Engineer Budd of Des Moines
at the same time that the government
engineer has been at work on this
project, has been making careful
survey of the river from the race track
to East Ninth street bridge and mile
: beyond. The city has no map of the
exact location of the rivers. Recent
ly the council authorized the engineer
! to make such a survey. He has been
/ at it now for several weeks and is
/ doing the work thoroughly. When he