New Britain herald., 1930-03-19
INCREASING NAVIGATION ALONG THE CONNECTICUT


 Increasing navigation on the i Connecticut river appears to be one of the aims of the Government as well as of cities along this noble stream. There are HolyOte, Chico pee and Springfield, for instance, who want to see ships use the river to their advantage. They are strong ly in favor of any plan destined to aid navigation, and as the Govern ment sees eye to eye with them on many phases of the problem, some- thing might be done about it if other things are done. There is always an ''if' in such calculations. In con- ncction with Connecticut river navi- gation the "if'' is larger than usual, yet does not form an insurmountablc l barrier.
 The War Department has charge i of the navigation plans, and sarce- ly anything can happen without the support of this arm of the Govern ment. What the engineers of the War Department are most particu- | lar about is that the construction of a dam at Enfield by private interests be actually commenced before the | Government will expend money for dredging purposes. The Northern Connecticut Power Company which l has applied for license to develop the stream there. or some other group, actually do more than plan l the dam. The reasons why the Gov | crnment will not proceed with dredging before the power company constructs it's dam are largely tech nical
 l The three cities mentioned, too, must do more than talk about "ad- vantages' before the War Depart ment is constrained to act. What they are supposed to do is to pro- i vide terminal facilities for ships These will cost a little money, but l the business gentlemen in the cities 1 involved profess to believe that can easily be arranged.
 A third difficulty, and one that seems to be quite important, is that ten bridges between Hartford and Holyokc must be provided with draws to provide sufficient clear ancc to the vessels expected to use the river. Reconstructing ten bridges in this manner probably will cost more money than providing terminal facilities at three cities. Anyway, the matter is 10 be discuss cd at q meeting of the interested cities to be held in Springfield on Saturday,
 On paper it is quite easy to figure the advantages. For instance. the cost of dredging the river 10 the Government would be nearly $500, ,000. The construction Of drawbridgcs would cost t'proXi- mately $3,O0O,000. The construction Of terminal facilities in the three cities evidently has not yet received financial attention.
 The income from the river i'm ] provement is stated in this fashion: Every year there are 3,0OO.000 tons of freight originating in the three cities, and Of this total S25,0o0 tons year could be expected to flow away on water. The annual savln- on this volume Of freight is esti
 mated at more than S1.000,000.
 The Government it IS said, would be willing to spend sS5,00O veal to maintain the channel and tn. requisite locks.
 The bridges between Hartforl and Holyolle present a big problem . in this contem plated revival of rive tIatiic on the upper reaches Of th' i Connecticut. Included are two mas sive masonry structures, thre'
 others owned by railroads, all. srryl structures. Of the latter, Gov ; crnncnt engineers say there are two
 or three that would have 10 be re . placed by better structures within d reasonable time, One Of ln' bridges that would have 10 be re 2 built is he North End bridge 1T . Springfield. considered a last word Of its typc of construction. AnC , there Is the highway bridge a