Smyrna times., 1923-07-11
FINAL DREDGING TO COMPLETE
DELAWARE CHESAPEAKE CANAL
ENGINEERS CALL FOR BIDS TO
REMOVE 100000 CUBIC YARDS
This Will Also Include New Entrances
To Allow Big Warships To Enter
Inland Waterway From Bays

Printed specifications were received |
Friday at United States Engineers
office for completing the work of |
dredging the Chesapeake and Della
ware Canal to a depth of 25 feet. Ap-
proximately 100000 cubic yards of !
material are to be removed and new
entrances dug at Delaware City and
Chesapeake City. The canal has been
divided into four sections, designated
as section A, section B, section C, and
section D. The work to be done un-
der the new specifications is to ex-
cavate in sections A. B and D a chan
mel which, when the water level in the
canal shall have been lowered to sea
level, will provide a navigable chan
mel having depth of II feet below
mean low water and a bottom width
of 80 feet, with approaches having a
bottom width of $50 feet, extending
on the Delaware end, from the 12-foot
curve of Delaware River to the Del
aware City-Port Penn Road, a dis
tance of about 5000 feet, and on the
Chesapeake end from the confluence
of the Elk River and Back Creek, up
Back Greek to Chesapeake City, dis
tance of about Az miles. Bids for
the work in hand will be opened at
noon on Thursday, August 2. At
present the canal is navigable for
steamers and other craft drawing nine
feet for its full length. The locks in
the canal have a length of 220 feet
and width of "a feet. Dredges. and
vessels of larger dimensions than
these can not enter the canal except
| by special means, to be described lat
er. The surface of water in the low
er level of the canal is maintained at
elevation of 7.6 feet, and the summit
level is maintained at elevation of
17.6 feet above mean low water, by
pumps operated by the United States
and located at Chesapeake City, Md.
The government will maintain the
water surface at as nearly these re-
spective elevations as possible during
the contract, the variation not exceed
ing to 3 inches each way, thus max
ing the maximum depths of water in
which excavation will be required
about 20 and 80 feet respectively in
the lock levels. The range of tide at
the Delaware end is six feet, and at
the Chesapeake end six feet. There
are no currents through the canal of
sufficient intensity to affect the work
ing of eXcavating plant. 1t is prob
able that unless unusual weather con-
ditions supervene operations may be
carried on for the entire year. The
present canal is lock canal, one lock
with lift of 7.6 feet being located at
Delaware City, and one lock with
lift of 10 feet at St. Georges, the two
locks combined raising the level of
the canal to an elevation of 17.6 feet
above mean low water in the Della
ware river. The third lock is located
at Chesapeake City, with a lift of
1876 feet above mean low water in
Back Greek. The summit level from
st. Georges to Chesapeake City is 9.3
miles long, making a total length of
slack water sections of 1876 miles, and
of the tidal section at the western end
of 4.2 miles. That portion of the ca
nal between Delaware river and St.
Georges lock passes through territory
generally low and fiat, with tidal flats
for large part of the distance, and
with moderately high banks for the
remainder. The same character of
land with a somewhat larger percent
age of high banks prevails from the
st. Georges lock to the railroad bridge
of the Delaware division of the Penn
sylvania Railroad. From this point
to Goose Point, a distance of about
four miles, the canal passes through
the divide between Delaware River
and Chesapeake Bay, the heights of
the banks averaging so to so feet
above the water of the summit level.
From Goose Point to Chesapeake City
the canal follows the course of what
was originally Broad Greek, a branch
of Back Creek, with gradually dimin-
ishing elevation of the banks. The
line of the improved canal joins the
Delaware River at Reedy Point, about
two miles below the present entrance
at Delaware City, and joins the exist
ing canal in "Wide Waters" at the
mouth of SCOTS Run, about three
miles westward from the present en-
trance at Delaware City. This new
line passes through some fast land
with a maximum elevation of about II
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