The fact of the matter is that a lot of these systems need to be completely replaced not simply band-aided. Unfortunately stopping the movement of commerce in any way in the short-term is politically non viable to nearly all politicians.
That's one of the biggest hurdle democracies have to face time and time again. To achieve significant changes you almost always have to start with big compromises. But before the benefits of those changes really come to show, the legislative period is over. So the government that introduced the changes will be associated with the compromises and not the benefits. So not only do they risk being reelected but also risk that the following opposing government gets associated with the benefits of the changes the first party introduced. Or the following government just demolishes everything the previous has started, before the benefits show. But a majority of the voters are too dumb to recognize this That's one of the big problems. Changes on the scale of a country or global scale take much longer to show their effects than a legislative period is. That's why many know what the right thing to do would be, but they don't have the balls to do it because it'll almost certainly cost them the next election. This problem exists in pretty much every democracy. USA suffer from this even more because it's basically a two-party system.
I can think at least one way it could potentially be done but then we are facing the other issue: making provisions for the replacement of this infrastructure in a way that doesn't cut traffic for months/years would take even more time and money.
If you know you’re going to need it for more than 100 years, make it out of materials that last at least that long or make it such that it can be serviced. Doing anything else is a waste.
This reminds me of an old line from a TV commercial: "You can pay me now or pay me later". It was about deferring an smaller expense now will cost you more later. Doing a $500,000 fix ten years ago would save a $2,000,000 fix today. It is always much more expensive later when deterioration has further progressed.
@@searchingfortruth619everything has a lifespan. Usually they can be extemded by good maintenance, but it eventually will need replacement. Very few things can be built to last 100 years. Especially if they are some sort of active structure.
And not just the increasing cost of deterioration amelioration. Putting the simple stuff like inflation aside too, there's the hard to stomach, hard to pin down, hard to justify dark art of jobs for the boys cost increases with unfathomable explanations. Not too long ago here in Britain, national level infrastructure projects or power stations for instance, were to be had for tens or hundreds of millions of pounds. Then without anyone raising an eyebrow or making a fuss it seems, similarly _grand projets_ now come in at the billion pound mark. That's the best and most urgent reason for your common sense approach of 'build it/repair it and reconstruct it now' that there can be.
If it’s a US based topic/project, this channel goes all in on the negatives - if it’s Europe/Asia, even the white elephant projects in the Middle East - everything is bubblegum and rainbows. Standard euro arrogance.
Even though the technology and infrastructure are very similar, the Erie Canal isn't actually part of the inland waterways, which are the responsibility of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (federal). The Erie Canal is older, nearly two centuries old, and is the responsibility of the New York State Canal Corporation (state).
@@ncb5455 As a Brit and an engineer, I get your sentiment, but only a bit ( mainly about vanity projects). I've been telling my American family for a good many years that America needs a national strategy on infrastructure and not the political football it is. I have so much to say about infrastructure, Globally, but unfortunately not the time because I've got to go to work. With regard to " euro arrogance" well at least it's based on something, so I think you've been a bit unfair there.
Considering how long overdue many of these replacement projects are, it also speaks for the construction techniques back in the day that these pieces of infrastructure have lasted so much longer than anticipated. Some people back then would have probably laughed you in the face if you would have told them they were stil in use in the 21st century, having thought they would have been replaced several times at that point. So, kudos to those engineers back then.
When I see him document European projects, my mind is blown. When it’s American projects, it’s all too often “ this is 40 years past. It expected lifetime”, or “ these locks could fail by 2028”.
As a European, it's quite shocking to see the state of the US! What baffles me the most, is how old factories that are closed, are just left to rust and rotten away. Drive by an old, closed mine and everything on the surface is just left there. In my country, you are forced to clean up, even on private ground.
@@akyhne ah yes, here the corporate profit is the most important factor in all our governments decisions Can’t have those billionaires spending a tiny fraction of a sliver of their profits! It’s anathema ☠️ Why pay for the clean up after when the tax payers will have to when it becomes a big issue
@@JeremyLoganit wasn't the boomers that elected Ronald reagan. It was the generation before the boomers. I am a boomer and I almost flunked out of my third semester of medical school trying to prevent Ronald Reagan from being elected. He was only elected because he and his greatest generation cohorts committed treason with iran. But the real problem here is the United States lack of democracy. The other modern democracies did things differently because because within a few decades, the anti-democratic mistakes built into the US Constitution were very apparent. The 3/5 rule, the electoral college, only allowing white males who owned property to vote, slavery, and the indirect election of senators were almost anti-democratic features of the US Constitution when it was first made. Those features gave more power to the wealthy. The wealthy, as They have every other time in history, use their excess power to take more and more power and wealth. This lopsided distribution of wealth destabilizes the economy In the 1800s, the first century of capitalism, when there was very little regulation, saw more than a half a dozen depressions that were equivalent of the Great depression starting in 1929. Why people in this country, especially white men, need to realize that economically they have more in common with minorities than they have with billionaires like Donald trump.
@@IndustrialParrot2816nowhere near fast enough, it's estimated to take longer than it took india to electrify its entire network; longer than it took china to build all of its HSR; longer than HS2 in the UK
@@TheB1M I would be interested! Formerly in the transport industry on sabbatical but just finished reviewing a couple academic papers submitted to the US National Academies yesterday. Made me wonder - "have I still got it?" Lol.
A buddy of mine is already scheduled to be working on Montgomery next year. He also worked on the last major repair job, as he is employed by a concrete cutting specialty contractor.
Funily enough, today part of the Carola Bridge here in Dresden, Germany collapsed during the night. It is truly frightening that this happens even in such a rich country with so much Supervision and safety regulations as germany. It is a miracle that nobody got hurt, and the bridge collapsed empty and not during the very busy Tram and pedestrian traffic. The Problem of too little Infrastrukturen spending has been a big political issue for ages now, lets hope this serves as a wake up call to action
even if the streetcar that had passed over it shortly before had crashed with 150 dead people, there would have been a bit of a fuss and 3 days later back to normal operation.
You should include that the bridge was already undergoing maintenance and the part that collapsed, was the next in the schedule So, whatever was the reason for the collapse, there was something being done already.
like most of the western world, it went from "we have to build a great nation! for the sake of our people and the rest of the world!" to "do we really have to bother with this? can't my successor do that?" and "let other handel this, they know how to make a lot of money, they will know how to do this as well. They even said they would make it cheaper."
I visited the Demopolis Lock & Dam back in 2002. My big regret is not having stopped to try the restaurant at the Demopolis Yacht Basin on my way out of town. The internet says that its name has changed a few times, but in 2002 the big sign on the roof clearly stated that its name was "Restaurant." It was across the parking lot from "Motel."
"Black Warrior" river? That's wild ive never heard of that. Unfortunately a lot of the infrastructure in our country needs completely replaced. It's crumbling
When I was 17, 30 something years ago, I lied about my age one summer and signed on to a tug. We worked on the upper Mississippi and the lock system then needed overhaul. I think it’s an experience that everyone should go through a lock system at least one in their life. Old tech still being used today, pretty darn cool to me
Great article and it’s needed to be heard and acted upon. I’m from these areas and your topics were a running story back 50 years ago. Thank you B1M! Hopefully people will understand the importance of new technologies and infrastructure to help upgrade these sites and sections of sorely needed attention.
Much of this infrastructure needs re-thinking and replacement, especially with relation to nature. The Klamath River dams in northern California have been removed and it's helped a lot to restore the integrity of the watershed here.
I been hearing infrastructure is poor in the US for over a decade, last year I wanted to do something about that and decided I want to switch careers and applied to a union apprenticeship. What I have come to find out, people waiting for the call to be allowed onto a union apprenticeship is 100-200+ long and apprenticeship programs only let in about 25-50 people a year. Hell, I wated with 163 people in line when application opened up. People want to be construction workers and work in the trade but for what ever reason, the people deciding who can work wont bring in and train the long line of people waiting.
Same story I heard back in 1980. You can not work the unions said unless you are union, but they will not let you join because to many union people unemployed.
As happens in other parts of the world it’s never urgent while the structure holds together but as soon as is it’s damaged or washed away suddenly it’s all stops out and there’s nothing more urgent
Not in every democracy. When I look at the infrastructure of the Netherlands, there is little wrong with it, and it is mostly well maintained or replaced on time.
Listening to politicians campaign to build a new highway (canal, bridge, or whatever) while at the same time promising to lower taxes and other endless bha, bla bla sounds about as old as these structures. Priorities need to shift to maintaining what we already have.
@@AL-lh2ht When all of these projects were built, income tax rates were MUCH higher than today. That's how we had the money to build these amazing structures.
Upgrading and Modernizing the vast amount of 1930s and 1950s infrastructure that's at the end of its service life including Railroads, Waterways, Highways, and the Power Grid
Becoming an Engineer is easier than you think! I graduated as a mature student with an upper second class degree in Electrical Engineering in 2013. I have been interviewed many times but there's always a reason why the younger applicants with lower degrees get the jobs. Still trying to start my career.
Becoming an engineer is not difficult, but university will consume your life and make you miserable for the entire time. If you are lucky, you will get burnout as well. All in all a great time and I am happy that I am only one month away from graduation.
Great video highlighting the historic/current uses and their current situations. Really great snippet on the funding mechanisms too, not just the nut and bolt engineering mechanisms of the locks. Without proper funding in place there's no way to improve the infrastructure no matter how great your engineering prowess. One topic this video made me think about was the labor pool. Seeing the construction worker build a concrete retaining wall is a very basic task. Seeing that triggered memories of the San Francisco Transbay Bus Terminal. I saw workers there building the structure using materials and shapes that aren't normal building materials or techniques used in the US. Seeing the construction workers on site in S.F. made me question the soundness of the structure itself based on the advanced design and the lack of experience building that type of structure from the existing labor pool. Not a few months after the grand opening, the terminal shut down due to a construction flaw. Would love to see a video on labor training in the US and/or where the knowledge and labor pool to construct these super modern, advanced structures comes from in areas that have not (traditionally) built these structures.
I've boated on US waterways . The main part is Mississippi below St Louis which has zero locks and is natural... Of the 500 million tons of cargo 3/5th is in or on borders of Louisiana. ... The rest of system is mostly failure.. the Tenn-Tomm canal added in 70s was failure but is still run ... The other parts were added too late, 1930s, in areas where railroads already existed and had tracks going to backdoors of buildings. ....
it is ridiculous that many of these repair projects are like "we're getting to it" when the dams have a 50% chance of failure by 2028, like the stakes are high, how are they delaying this much?
All of this lock talk reminds me of the port in Lewiston, Idaho. The furthest east Pacific ocean port in the US. You can see the path to it at 1:34 (top left)
Not sure the Columbia River has much cargo. Idaho produces stuff for east US, not much for Asia, so the Columbia is useless.... Time is money, from Idaho is 240 hours to get to Portland, but train is 10 hours.... Sometimes Congress does the math and knows hey this ain't that vital, let's spend money instead on cancer treatments, you gotta pick priorities.
Nice home office Fred!❤ your channel is just the best. Still remember how stoked you were when you saw your ad for the B1M on the wall in the tube station a few years ago lol😂
1 thing to remember is eastern Midwest (Pennsylvania West Virginia etc) is doubling down on fossil fuels while the western Midwest (Illinois Indiana etc) is doubling down on nuclear energy and don’t need a lot of these fixes. If Pennsylvania doesn’t diversify they’ll be left behind like West Virginia has.
They have a GDP of 25 -26, trillion and only 1 trillion of that goes to the military about 3 trillion, go infrastructure within a new bill just passed by Biden a year ago I believe.
@1:34 The map seems pretty incomplete, doesn't it? I'm pretty sure the whole system from Texas to the great lakes is connected to the east coast. At least via lake Erie or lake Ontario
Not much for waterways in the western US. I notice that the California rivers are not shown on your map, where sea going ships can go to West Sacramento and Stockton. There are also lesser waterways in the Bay Area where barge traffic is regular.
You can see the infrastructure problem all over europe. Basically, every large project like bridges has been built after WW2 when everything was booming. Now, most countries have invested far too little in the past 20 years, with only some outliers like the Scandinavians. Its gonna be interesting in the future, especially as we are spending a lot on consumption (yes social / healthcare / pension is all consumption) and very little on actual investments for the future generation.
It's just weird that money wasn't set aside when these dams were constructed to fund their eventual replacements. Have they never heard of depreciation?
The marine highway system is easily in my top 5 parts of american infrastructure and definitely top 3 transportation (freight and highway, transit rail is shit here and flying is terrible due to the corperations involved and monopolies)
If people were more interested in beating their swords into plowshares rather that beating their plowshares into swords they could actually take care of the more important things.
at 1:40, you have mentioned 1/3 cargo mode through the river, and 1:55 you have mentioned 120 billion cargo moved. these 2 numbers don't match for sure.
I preferred your previous thumbnail for this video. I didn't click on it then because I was busy. Almost didn't click on it now because I thought it was another video
The Army Corps of Engineers have an awful record of screwing up every project they attempt. Just look at what they did in the Florida Everglades. We’re still trying to undo their damage. 😢
The Chickamauga Lock on the Chickamauga Dam near Chattanooga TN has been in the process of replacing their lock and is about halfway done. It should be finished in 2026
I'm pretty sure, that if America couldn't use its waterways, all it's domestic cargo would be routed through the rail network. Any exports that couldn't be moved by ship or train would be shipped by truck to its nearest shipyard. Waterways are important but the economy wouldn't collapse
Yeah, that shouldn't be an issue. You'll just need to find about a 1000 trucks to replace a full barge tow. Or about 134 per single barge. If we take the Army Corps of Engineers' numbers and calculate 134 trucks per barge... We can easily replace the 31 thousand barges serving the US with only 4 million semi-trucks. As we all know, there's absolutely no shortage of truck drivers in the US whatsoever. American road infrastructure is in tip top shape and is just waiting to accept those extra trucks. In fact that would be a barely noticeable more than 2-fols increase from the 3 million trucks already on US roads. But we can make it even easier if we replace the barges with rail cars! We'll just have to somehow get triple the amount the US already has and lay rail lines along the major waterways. As we all know, the US is unparalleled when it comes to laying rail lines quickly and on a tight budget. Yep, I agree with you, it won't be any problem whatsoever.
From the video it looks like a lot of the “commerce” is shifting coal to power stations. It would be interesting to see a bit more about the other commodities being transported on the network.
How much of the river traffic on these eastern US rivers is coal-related? If we no longer used or produced coal, would some of these systems even be needed?
Are the Soo Locks, Straits of Mackinac, and Detroit River in Michigan not considered inland waterways? Shipping through these points alone contributes a huge amount to the GDP . However, I know (as a native Michigander) we don't really consider the Great Lakes "inland", they are more seas than lakes.
America has more inland navigable waterways than the rest of the world combined and it is seriously neglected just like the rest of it's infrastructure but at least they have universal health care 😐
Pickwick dam on the tennessee river is one i live near. Sometime back i believe they were taking samples of the soil from the earthen part that was holding back the lake. Im no expert...but im pretty sure water was starting to seep through to the otherside. So etime after that they built up tha sodes to make the earthen part thicker. Just an assumption but thats the only reason i could think of strengthening that part of the dam.
they took a lock out in Pittsburgh lowering the river several feet, for several hundred feet in length. no replacement. "it was only designed to last 100 years. its older than 100 years..." 🍻
Actually spending money on infrastructure isn't pretty, it's not glamorous, and nobody remembers it. Our infrastructure has been neglected for decades. Look at how many public works projects are underway today.
💯 Came here to say that! Great example of how politicians schemes from long ago affect us now! Most of America's problems can be solved with simple reforms to update the bureaucracy to the 21st century. look at Estonia!
why are they even built out of concrete, i live in the netherlands and here they were made out of brick, some of them have been in operation with just 3 hours a week maintaince for almost 300 years, i would even dare say some locks here are older than the US itself and still in use
Probably because it takes much more time and is more expensive than concrete? Also brick walls can't take as much lateral forces as reinforced concrete. I guess the significance of this fact depends the size and heigt of the dam and also how violent the river is.
Your "understanding" of wear on structures in water is --> pathetic. USA has locks hundreds of years old as well--> made out of concrete. Guess what? They ALL, be it concrete or brick, have major maintenance done on them. YOU just are not aware of that maintenance. PS: Bricks are garbage compared to concrete. No one in their right mind would build with bricks.
If the people and companies who use the infrastructure are not doing anything themselves to fix infrastructure, perhaps they don’t care anymore of tomorrow
Predictable outcome of privatization with mismanaged finance inflating rentier assets rather than to develop innovation and fundamental production enterprise efficacy. Starkly poor compared to China.
To try everything Brilliant has to offer for free for a full 30 days, check out 👉brilliant.org/TheB1M/
I may be dense or overlooking the obvious. But what does B1M mean?
I almost didn't watch that video- glad I got to finally see the B1M do a video on a project in my home state :)
The words of Winston Churchill you can count on the United States to do the right thing after its tried everything else
There's nothing more permanent than a temporary solution.
Haha, well said.
You must be a software developer as well
Nothing is tighter than stripped!
@_JamesBrown
Haha yeah I tried to undo a propane fitting the other day the laborer put on way too tight and damn near stripped ir
A quote of dear ol' Ronnie was it not?
The fact of the matter is that a lot of these systems need to be completely replaced not simply band-aided. Unfortunately stopping the movement of commerce in any way in the short-term is politically non viable to nearly all politicians.
Exactly!
That's one of the biggest hurdle democracies have to face time and time again.
To achieve significant changes you almost always have to start with big compromises. But before the benefits of those changes really come to show, the legislative period is over.
So the government that introduced the changes will be associated with the compromises and not the benefits.
So not only do they risk being reelected but also risk that the following opposing government gets associated with the benefits of the changes the first party introduced.
Or the following government just demolishes everything the previous has started, before the benefits show.
But a majority of the voters are too dumb to recognize this
That's one of the big problems. Changes on the scale of a country or global scale take much longer to show their effects than a legislative period is. That's why many know what the right thing to do would be, but they don't have the balls to do it because it'll almost certainly cost them the next election.
This problem exists in pretty much every democracy.
USA suffer from this even more because it's basically a two-party system.
reality itself will force them
I can think at least one way it could potentially be done but then we are facing the other issue: making provisions for the replacement of this infrastructure in a way that doesn't cut traffic for months/years would take even more time and money.
If you know you’re going to need it for more than 100 years, make it out of materials that last at least that long or make it such that it can be serviced. Doing anything else is a waste.
This reminds me of an old line from a TV commercial: "You can pay me now or pay me later". It was about deferring an smaller expense now will cost you more later. Doing a $500,000 fix ten years ago would save a $2,000,000 fix today. It is always much more expensive later when deterioration has further progressed.
Exactly this 💯
Or even better, build things better in the first place.
@@searchingfortruth619 Nothing lasts forever.
@@searchingfortruth619everything has a lifespan. Usually they can be extemded by good maintenance, but it eventually will need replacement.
Very few things can be built to last 100 years. Especially if they are some sort of active structure.
And not just the increasing cost of deterioration amelioration. Putting the simple stuff like inflation aside too, there's the hard to stomach, hard to pin down, hard to justify dark art of jobs for the boys cost increases with unfathomable explanations.
Not too long ago here in Britain, national level infrastructure projects or power stations for instance, were to be had for tens or hundreds of millions of pounds.
Then without anyone raising an eyebrow or making a fuss it seems, similarly _grand projets_ now come in at the billion pound mark.
That's the best and most urgent reason for your common sense approach of 'build it/repair it and reconstruct it now' that there can be.
Today an important bridge in my hometown (Dresden, Germany) fell apart. You cant believe, how fast this can go and how big the damage can be.
Plenty of repairs and maintenance going on in recent years along the Erie Canal, including locks and bridges.
If it’s a US based topic/project, this channel goes all in on the negatives - if it’s Europe/Asia, even the white elephant projects in the Middle East - everything is bubblegum and rainbows. Standard euro arrogance.
@ncb5455
I dunno, but im pretty certain that isnt a European channel. If its European, it's British , and that's societally ame4ican anyway.
@@eingrobernerzustand3741nah, Brits are very arrogant and condescending towards the us
Even though the technology and infrastructure are very similar, the Erie Canal isn't actually part of the inland waterways, which are the responsibility of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (federal). The Erie Canal is older, nearly two centuries old, and is the responsibility of the New York State Canal Corporation (state).
@@ncb5455 As a Brit and an engineer, I get your sentiment, but only a bit ( mainly about vanity projects). I've been telling my American family for a good many years that America needs a national strategy on infrastructure and not the political football it is. I have so much to say about infrastructure, Globally, but unfortunately not the time because I've got to go to work. With regard to " euro arrogance" well at least it's based on something, so I think you've been a bit unfair there.
Considering how long overdue many of these replacement projects are, it also speaks for the construction techniques back in the day that these pieces of infrastructure have lasted so much longer than anticipated. Some people back then would have probably laughed you in the face if you would have told them they were stil in use in the 21st century, having thought they would have been replaced several times at that point. So, kudos to those engineers back then.
When I see him document European projects, my mind is blown. When it’s American projects, it’s all too often “ this is 40 years past. It expected lifetime”, or “ these locks could fail by 2028”.
Our grandparents invested in the future, the Boomers just took took took, and now we're having to invest again, and make up for their greed.
@@JeremyLoganbaby boomers robbed us from our futures for their own economic gains
As a European, it's quite shocking to see the state of the US!
What baffles me the most, is how old factories that are closed, are just left to rust and rotten away.
Drive by an old, closed mine and everything on the surface is just left there. In my country, you are forced to clean up, even on private ground.
@@akyhne ah yes, here the corporate profit is the most important factor in all our governments decisions
Can’t have those billionaires spending a tiny fraction of a sliver of their profits! It’s anathema ☠️
Why pay for the clean up after when the tax payers will have to when it becomes a big issue
@@JeremyLoganit wasn't the boomers that elected Ronald reagan. It was the generation before the boomers. I am a boomer and I almost flunked out of my third semester of medical school trying to prevent Ronald Reagan from being elected. He was only elected because he and his greatest generation cohorts committed treason with iran.
But the real problem here is the United States lack of democracy. The other modern democracies did things differently because because within a few decades, the anti-democratic mistakes built into the US Constitution were very apparent.
The 3/5 rule, the electoral college, only allowing white males who owned property to vote, slavery, and the indirect election of senators were almost anti-democratic features of the US Constitution when it was first made.
Those features gave more power to the wealthy. The wealthy, as They have every other time in history, use their excess power to take more and more power and wealth. This lopsided distribution of wealth destabilizes the economy
In the 1800s, the first century of capitalism, when there was very little regulation, saw more than a half a dozen depressions that were equivalent of the Great depression starting in 1929.
Why people in this country, especially white men, need to realize that economically they have more in common with minorities than they have with billionaires like Donald trump.
GOOD, finally spending money on American infrastructure. Next the road bridges and rail systems!
They have been Rebuilding the Busy railroad line between Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York so Amtrak can improve speeds
@@IndustrialParrot2816nowhere near fast enough, it's estimated to take longer than it took india to electrify its entire network; longer than it took china to build all of its HSR; longer than HS2 in the UK
@@KingFinnchTo speed things up USA should get China to build it's infrastructure 😁
The same law that provides funding for waterways also provides funding for bridges, roads, and rails.
@@KingFinnch ask China to build it, under US officials' supervision or something. the entire US infra will be renewed by them in 10 years 😆
This is a dam cool video
😆 classic
Take my upvote and get out of here
What to join our script writing team?!
@@TheB1M I would be interested! Formerly in the transport industry on sabbatical but just finished reviewing a couple academic papers submitted to the US National Academies yesterday. Made me wonder - "have I still got it?" Lol.
@@TheB1M yes please
A buddy of mine is already scheduled to be working on Montgomery next year. He also worked on the last major repair job, as he is employed by a concrete cutting specialty contractor.
Exactly what you write; repair, not replace :\
It's taking extreme measures to fix most things, but when something good happens it's after an event that kills.
Funily enough, today part of the Carola Bridge here in Dresden, Germany collapsed during the night.
It is truly frightening that this happens even in such a rich country with so much Supervision and safety regulations as germany.
It is a miracle that nobody got hurt, and the bridge collapsed empty and not during the very busy Tram and pedestrian traffic.
The Problem of too little Infrastrukturen spending has been a big political issue for ages now, lets hope this serves as a wake up call to action
It will not be a wake up call. Sad, but true.
The policy of the Powers-That-Be appears to be the de-industrialization of Europe and North America.
even if the streetcar that had passed over it shortly before had crashed with 150 dead people, there would have been a bit of a fuss and 3 days later back to normal operation.
Well when your leader says "Wir schaffen das", then money is needed elsewhere.
You should include that the bridge was already undergoing maintenance and the part that collapsed, was the next in the schedule
So, whatever was the reason for the collapse, there was something being done already.
like most of the western world, it went from "we have to build a great nation! for the sake of our people and the rest of the world!" to "do we really have to bother with this? can't my successor do that?" and "let other handel this, they know how to make a lot of money, they will know how to do this as well. They even said they would make it cheaper."
I visited the Demopolis Lock & Dam back in 2002. My big regret is not having stopped to try the restaurant at the Demopolis Yacht Basin on my way out of town. The internet says that its name has changed a few times, but in 2002 the big sign on the roof clearly stated that its name was "Restaurant." It was across the parking lot from "Motel."
Nice Cincinnati sky line in the beginning, thanks for that GO Bucks!
Concrete is everywhere, love discovering interesting projects.
Thank you for bringing this important topic to the mainstream. It’s something we all depend upon but never think about.
I am so glad we got all these infrastructure packages passed.
can you imagine what this country would look like if we didn't waste trillions of dollars in wars?
"Black Warrior" river? That's wild ive never heard of that. Unfortunately a lot of the infrastructure in our country needs completely replaced. It's crumbling
When I was 17, 30 something years ago, I lied about my age one summer and signed on to a tug. We worked on the upper Mississippi and the lock system then needed overhaul. I think it’s an experience that everyone should go through a lock system at least one in their life.
Old tech still being used today, pretty darn cool to me
Great article and it’s needed to be heard and acted upon. I’m from these areas and your topics were a running story back 50 years ago. Thank you B1M! Hopefully people will understand the importance of new technologies and infrastructure to help upgrade these sites and sections of sorely needed attention.
Much of this infrastructure needs re-thinking and replacement, especially with relation to nature. The Klamath River dams in northern California have been removed and it's helped a lot to restore the integrity of the watershed here.
This was a dam good video, Fred & TheB1M!
I been hearing infrastructure is poor in the US for over a decade, last year I wanted to do something about that and decided I want to switch careers and applied to a union apprenticeship. What I have come to find out, people waiting for the call to be allowed onto a union apprenticeship is 100-200+ long and apprenticeship programs only let in about 25-50 people a year. Hell, I wated with 163 people in line when application opened up. People want to be construction workers and work in the trade but for what ever reason, the people deciding who can work wont bring in and train the long line of people waiting.
Probably because of union politics....
Same story I heard back in 1980. You can not work the unions said unless you are union, but they will not let you join because to many union people unemployed.
As happens in other parts of the world it’s never urgent while the structure holds together but as soon as is it’s damaged or washed away suddenly it’s all stops out and there’s nothing more urgent
Not in every democracy. When I look at the infrastructure of the Netherlands, there is little wrong with it, and it is mostly well maintained or replaced on time.
Listening to politicians campaign to build a new highway (canal, bridge, or whatever) while at the same time promising to lower taxes and other endless bha, bla bla sounds about as old as these structures. Priorities need to shift to maintaining what we already have.
Lower taxes and more for the military. Unsustainable in the long run and since it's always more money for the military you have to raise taxes a lot.
@@grsafran You have no idea the percantage of the US federal spending is on the military compared to other things.
@@AL-lh2ht When all of these projects were built, income tax rates were MUCH higher than today. That's how we had the money to build these amazing structures.
Upgrading and Modernizing the vast amount of 1930s and 1950s infrastructure that's at the end of its service life including Railroads, Waterways, Highways, and the Power Grid
@@AL-lh2htthe Military gets a Trillion dollars every year we can afford to trim that
Thank you very much for bringing this to us American's attention, sir. Cheers, from Jacksonville, Florida.
Better editing than most modern T.V shows! I love this channel! Thank you for all that you do.
Very enjoyable as always 👍
Non compressed concrete failing after less than 100 years, what a surprise, wrong material for long term
Born and raised in Demopolis. Was totally shocked to see that as part of the video
Today I learned US systematically transports sewage on barges (which are blocked because of a railway project) so yes this is very important.
What's going on with shipping
What is the purpose of transporting sewage?
Sewage was never once mentioned in the video.
@@JeremyLoganThey never claimed it was
yet again. brilliant /interesting/ informative.
Thanks Fred, And team.
Great presentation
As a yinzer, I was not expecting to see Pittsburgh in a B1M video. Good stuff though.
As a fellow Yinzer, I was thinking the same thing.
Nice fade Fred, super fresh.
Haha, thanks!
No fish bypass on the rewed dams?
The fish were actually really angry about that but then forgot about it 10 seconds later.
@TheB1M what a stupid response from someone who doesn't understand ecology
@@smallmovezmusic Lighten up, he was just making a JOKE 🙄
@@TheB1M 1 second actually
@@smallmovezmusic so sensitive
Thanks for the knowledge, Ross Barkley 🙏🔥
Becoming an Engineer is easier than you think! I graduated as a mature student with an upper second class degree in Electrical Engineering in 2013. I have been interviewed many times but there's always a reason why the younger applicants with lower degrees get the jobs. Still trying to start my career.
Becoming an engineer is not difficult, but university will consume your life and make you miserable for the entire time. If you are lucky, you will get burnout as well.
All in all a great time and I am happy that I am only one month away from graduation.
Thank you.
Great video highlighting the historic/current uses and their current situations. Really great snippet on the funding mechanisms too, not just the nut and bolt engineering mechanisms of the locks. Without proper funding in place there's no way to improve the infrastructure no matter how great your engineering prowess.
One topic this video made me think about was the labor pool. Seeing the construction worker build a concrete retaining wall is a very basic task. Seeing that triggered memories of the San Francisco Transbay Bus Terminal. I saw workers there building the structure using materials and shapes that aren't normal building materials or techniques used in the US. Seeing the construction workers on site in S.F. made me question the soundness of the structure itself based on the advanced design and the lack of experience building that type of structure from the existing labor pool. Not a few months after the grand opening, the terminal shut down due to a construction flaw. Would love to see a video on labor training in the US and/or where the knowledge and labor pool to construct these super modern, advanced structures comes from in areas that have not (traditionally) built these structures.
I've boated on US waterways . The main part is Mississippi below St Louis which has zero locks and is natural... Of the 500 million tons of cargo 3/5th is in or on borders of Louisiana. ... The rest of system is mostly failure.. the Tenn-Tomm canal added in 70s was failure but is still run ... The other parts were added too late, 1930s, in areas where railroads already existed and had tracks going to backdoors of buildings. ....
it is ridiculous that many of these repair projects are like "we're getting to it" when the dams have a 50% chance of failure by 2028, like the stakes are high, how are they delaying this much?
You should do a story on the Sue Saint Marie Locks in MI and the other parts of the Great Lakes waterway.
All of this lock talk reminds me of the port in Lewiston, Idaho. The furthest east Pacific ocean port in the US.
You can see the path to it at 1:34 (top left)
Not sure the Columbia River has much cargo. Idaho produces stuff for east US, not much for Asia, so the Columbia is useless.... Time is money, from Idaho is 240 hours to get to Portland, but train is 10 hours.... Sometimes Congress does the math and knows hey this ain't that vital, let's spend money instead on cancer treatments, you gotta pick priorities.
It's not just the infrastructure that's failing.
America's * Are Falling Apart, you can do a whole series: roads, tunnels, railways, bridges etc
It's because our Filthy politicians are pieces of Shit
Nice home office Fred!❤ your channel is just the best. Still remember how stoked you were when you saw your ad for the B1M on the wall in the tube station a few years ago lol😂
Thanks! Yeah that was a huge moment. We have a few more planned for this autumn too across London and the US.
1 thing to remember is eastern Midwest (Pennsylvania West Virginia etc) is doubling down on fossil fuels while the western Midwest (Illinois Indiana etc) is doubling down on nuclear energy and don’t need a lot of these fixes. If Pennsylvania doesn’t diversify they’ll be left behind like West Virginia has.
There was a dam failure in Minnesota this year
If they stopped inflating costs for materials in the military, they'd be able to take some of those funds and use it for infrastructure
No they will use it for other military desires
They have a GDP of 25 -26, trillion and only 1 trillion of that goes to the military about 3 trillion, go infrastructure within a new bill just passed by Biden a year ago I believe.
Fred ❤
1:10 best use of the military i have ever seen
@1:34 The map seems pretty incomplete, doesn't it? I'm pretty sure the whole system from Texas to the great lakes is connected to the east coast.
At least via lake Erie or lake Ontario
Couldn't love dam engineering videos more! DAM
True fan of the puns right there.
I love this channel. No depressing news or politics, just building stuff 😁
It’s the best around
Yeah
Thanks so much mate!
If the loss of engineering and construction because of political influence on systems crucial to societal function isn't depressing, then, sure? Lol 😅
@@thalanoth Yeah ok 👀
Not much for waterways in the western US. I notice that the California rivers are not shown on your map, where sea going ships can go to West Sacramento and Stockton. There are also lesser waterways in the Bay Area where barge traffic is regular.
You can see the infrastructure problem all over europe. Basically, every large project like bridges has been built after WW2 when everything was booming. Now, most countries have invested far too little in the past 20 years, with only some outliers like the Scandinavians. Its gonna be interesting in the future, especially as we are spending a lot on consumption (yes social / healthcare / pension is all consumption) and very little on actual investments for the future generation.
What infrastructure in the United States isn’t crumbling?
It's just weird that money wasn't set aside when these dams were constructed to fund their eventual replacements. Have they never heard of depreciation?
There’s a thought. Slowly seed a replacement fund with dollars every fiscal year until the date is reached to replace the infrastructure.
@@ScentlessSunthese things always get cut first. To be replaced later, which eventually never happens obviously.
Y'all called it, disastrous indeed. 😬😔
Time to invest in infrastructure, screw foreign conflicts
Sick surf bro
America passed its prime a long time ago, imo. Would love to see it pick up its trajectory again. Will require a lot of hard work.
I think they can come back.
Uh... no. You are all still using american tech and innovation 😆
@@makattak88 Still #1 economy power, keep coping... you all are in denial ha
@@dertythegrower look at you go. Projecting much?
🤡
0:08 You're missing the Great Lakes system of waterways diagram, which is one the largest to this day in terms of bulk tonnage
Everything is falling apart. Whole US is falling apart while country is focusing on wars
No, the focus in the USA is on short term thinking. Easy political victories :\ That is proven time and time again, unfortunately.
It wouldn't be the USA without politicians squabbling about things that need to be fixed yet not wanting to pay for anything. Gotta love bureaucracy
It would be helpful if one party hadn't decided that government can't be trusted to fix problems. Thanks, Reagan.
Thank you for correctly pronouncing Illinois
The marine highway system is easily in my top 5 parts of american infrastructure and definitely top 3 transportation (freight and highway, transit rail is shit here and flying is terrible due to the corperations involved and monopolies)
If people were more interested in beating their swords into plowshares rather that beating their plowshares into swords they could actually take care of the more important things.
Timely reminder of how we so often take infrastructure for granted, until it fails.
at 1:40, you have mentioned 1/3 cargo mode through the river, and 1:55 you have mentioned 120 billion cargo moved. these 2 numbers don't match for sure.
I preferred your previous thumbnail for this video. I didn't click on it then because I was busy. Almost didn't click on it now because I thought it was another video
The Army Corps of Engineers have an awful record of screwing up every project they attempt. Just look at what they did in the Florida Everglades. We’re still trying to undo their damage. 😢
The Chickamauga Lock on the Chickamauga Dam near Chattanooga TN has been in the process of replacing their lock and is about halfway done. It should be finished in 2026
I hope they can fix them, inland waterways are awesome. I wish my country of Sweden would have even a fraction of what America has.
I'm pretty sure, that if America couldn't use its waterways, all it's domestic cargo would be routed through the rail network. Any exports that couldn't be moved by ship or train would be shipped by truck to its nearest shipyard. Waterways are important but the economy wouldn't collapse
Yeah, that shouldn't be an issue. You'll just need to find about a 1000 trucks to replace a full barge tow. Or about 134 per single barge.
If we take the Army Corps of Engineers' numbers and calculate 134 trucks per barge... We can easily replace the 31 thousand barges serving the US with only 4 million semi-trucks. As we all know, there's absolutely no shortage of truck drivers in the US whatsoever. American road infrastructure is in tip top shape and is just waiting to accept those extra trucks. In fact that would be a barely noticeable more than 2-fols increase from the 3 million trucks already on US roads.
But we can make it even easier if we replace the barges with rail cars! We'll just have to somehow get triple the amount the US already has and lay rail lines along the major waterways. As we all know, the US is unparalleled when it comes to laying rail lines quickly and on a tight budget.
Yep, I agree with you, it won't be any problem whatsoever.
You should check out the soo locks upgrade in michigan.
From the video it looks like a lot of the “commerce” is shifting coal to power stations. It would be interesting to see a bit more about the other commodities being transported on the network.
This is a good thing. We need to learn our lesson about unsustainable terraforming and infrastructure
How much of the river traffic on these eastern US rivers is coal-related? If we no longer used or produced coal, would some of these systems even be needed?
Are the Soo Locks, Straits of Mackinac, and Detroit River in Michigan not considered inland waterways? Shipping through these points alone contributes a huge amount to the GDP . However, I know (as a native Michigander) we don't really consider the Great Lakes "inland", they are more seas than lakes.
America has more inland navigable waterways than the rest of the world combined and it is seriously neglected just like the rest of it's infrastructure but at least they have universal health care 😐
Pickwick dam on the tennessee river is one i live near. Sometime back i believe they were taking samples of the soil from the earthen part that was holding back the lake. Im no expert...but im pretty sure water was starting to seep through to the otherside. So etime after that they built up tha sodes to make the earthen part thicker. Just an assumption but thats the only reason i could think of strengthening that part of the dam.
they took a lock out in Pittsburgh lowering the river several feet, for several hundred feet in length. no replacement. "it was only designed to last 100 years. its older than 100 years..." 🍻
Infrastructure here gets replaced when it falls apart.
There are no wild rivers left in the state of Georgia, and no natural lakes.
Being able to get stuff out easily from that deep into the country has been the US' real major competitive advantage.
Actually spending money on infrastructure isn't pretty, it's not glamorous, and nobody remembers it. Our infrastructure has been neglected for decades. Look at how many public works projects are underway today.
Amazing video, I love America’s waterways
Repeal the Jones act. Waterway usage will increase 10x, and user fees will eventually pay for the upgrades that have been needed since the 60's
💯 Came here to say that! Great example of how politicians schemes from long ago affect us now! Most of America's problems can be solved with simple reforms to update the bureaucracy to the 21st century. look at Estonia!
Any fellow pittsburgh yinzers in here?
Water is really hard to stop or control
Someone needs to get the beaver engineers in ASAP
why are they even built out of concrete, i live in the netherlands and here they were made out of brick, some of them have been in operation with just 3 hours a week maintaince for almost 300 years, i would even dare say some locks here are older than the US itself and still in use
Probably because it takes much more time and is more expensive than concrete?
Also brick walls can't take as much lateral forces as reinforced concrete. I guess the significance of this fact depends the size and heigt of the dam and also how violent the river is.
This is so important. We need to build things that last. America just does whatever is fastest to win political points.
In the Netherlands, the rivers and locks are MUCH smaller with less water pressure in comparison to American waterways. Concrete is far stronger.
@@ReviewBoard-uy5nv And LASTS far longer. Bricks are garbage.
Your "understanding" of wear on structures in water is --> pathetic. USA has locks hundreds of years old as well--> made out of concrete. Guess what? They ALL, be it concrete or brick, have major maintenance done on them. YOU just are not aware of that maintenance. PS: Bricks are garbage compared to concrete. No one in their right mind would build with bricks.
Sorry... Mobeel???!
If the people and companies who use the infrastructure are not doing anything themselves to fix infrastructure, perhaps they don’t care anymore of tomorrow
How are they going to repair the rest of the sctructure? LIke 75% the "part" which holds all of the water or controls how much water goes through.
Predictable outcome of privatization with mismanaged finance inflating rentier assets rather than to develop innovation and fundamental production enterprise efficacy. Starkly poor compared to China.
Wow. That totally describes the country I am living in. Rentier state is the exact term I have used too!
Shut up, you lier.
These are all government assets that you don't want to pay the upkeep for.
Ya, The Lake Lure DAM in The Asheville, N.C. Area couldn’t hold the FLOOD WATERS from Hurricane Helene.