Evening star., 1936-07-29
PRESENT DREDGING
TO ADD ACRES TO
.GRAVELLY POINT
100000 Cubic Yards of Fill
to Go on Proposed Air.
port Site.
OPERATIONS DIRECTED
AT CHANNEL DEEPENING
Work Being Done by Army Engi.
neer Office May Affect Landing
Field Decision.

ANAoAAS OPNAobAO4A Will puI
100000 cubic yards of fill into the
disputed Gravelly Point airport area
are now being carried on by the Army
engineer Office for the local district.
This work is preliminary to awarding
contract in the near future for
dredging which will put an additional
100000 cubic yards of fill into the
area.
Before next Spring many acres Of
made land probably will be above
water on the Gravelly Point airport
site, estimates of the area varying
from 40 to as much as rs acres. Army
engineers in charge of the operation
would not hazard any official esti-
mate.
1t was pointed out that the present
operations are directed toward channel
deepening and improvement, and that
the dumping on the Gravelly Point
area is not being carried on now with
the idea of making any particular
amount of land, but merely for the
purpose of disposing Of the material
dredged from the channel.
Nevertheless, it is believed in avia-
ton circles, the Gravelly Point opera
tions now in progress may have a great
influence on the local airport prob
lem, which will come before Congress
next Winter when the new District
Airport Commission will submit its
recommendations as to a SITE for a
model airport for Washington
Fight on for 10 Years.
For 10 years the Aero Club of
Washington, the Washington Board
of Trade and a score more of local
aviation and business organizations
have been fighting for the develop
ment Of an airport at Gravelly Point.
Every year for 10 years the matter
has been under dispute before con-
gressional committees, with GraveIly
Point always an outstanding Claim-
ant for attention among the airport
sites brought up for consideration.
The Army 12-inch hydraulic dredge,
Dalecarlia, and the derrick boat, Ben
ming, both are at work at Grayellv
Point. They will be joined in about
three weeks by the big l8-inch hy-
draulic dredge, Talcott, now at Tap
pahannock, Va. These three Army
dredges will work just outside the
earth levees around the proposed
Gravelly Point site, dredging a "han-
ding" basin for the future channel
operations.
The Army dredging will result IN
the creation of a dredged area slonp
the river front of the levee 400 feet
long by 400 feet wide, with a water
depth of 25 feet.
specifications now are being c1m.
pleted by the Engineer office for
dredging of the Anacostia channel
from the Potomac t. PENNSYLVANIA
Avenue Bridge to a new depth of "a
feet. The Office will advertise for bids
In about two weeks and viii open bids
about the middle of September. This
operation will call for the moving of
about 100000 cubic yards and prob
ably will cost about S25O,0O0.
All Of the material must be loaded
aboard barges for towing to Grayellv
Point. Here it will be dumped into
the l,400 by 400 foot handling basin
and pumped from there by hydraulic
dredges into the Gravelly Point area
behind the levees.
unoer the proposed type of opera
t1ons, the made ground will begin
to appear just behind the levees and
the NIL will work back toward the
virginia shore. 1t is probable that
when the 100000 0-cubic-yard fill is
completed there may be land above
water at low tide from the Virginia
shore to the levee. At high tides much
or all of this land may disappear.
No Purpose Yet Specified.
II the present fill were directed to-
ward the making of land for a spe-
clnc purpose, such as a unit of the
proposed airport, it was pointed out
retaining levees probably would be nut
up around the unit and the material
pumped in to depth of 10 feet or
so above water level. Since no air.
port or other project has yet been
authorized, however, this procedure
will not be followed.
In the meantime members of the
three-man planning subcommittee of
the Airport Commission are making
a study Of available local airport sites,
The subcommittee, headed by Mai.
Gen. Oscar Westover, chief of the
Army Air Corps, is expected to make
a flrst-hand study of at least six of
the 48 airport sites which have been
suggested during the 10 years of con-
slderation of the question.
Gen. Westover, it is understood. AL
ready has made preliminary STUDY
OF the sites from the air. The sub
committee and the commission are
conducting their deliberations secretlv
and no announcement will be made
prior to the submission of the com.
missions recommendation to Congress
next January, it was announced bv
Senator King Of Utah, commission
chairman.
Among the sites which it is under.
stood will receive special considera.
ton are Gravelly Point and WASH
ington Airport, long the chief con.
tender in the congressional delibera-
tions; a site at Oxon Hill, Md; the
Benning race track area; a site at
Chillum Heights, Md, and one at
ClIitIopd AFd