Water Education Foundation
This is just one post in the Weird & Wacky Water News Category
Click here to view all posts

Army Corps of Engineers unleashes FART

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 1, 2009 at 7:38 am

Breaking news from Water Wired:

In an April 1, 2009 New Orleans press conference, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District Supervisor Col. R.P. ‘Pat’ McGroin announced a mammoth engineering project – the world’s largest – that would completely straighten, widen, and concrete-line the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The project, formally titled FART – Fix America’s River Transportation – has been sought by petrochemical and shipping companies for years, whose many facilities line that reach of the river.

“Let’s clear the air: FART is real, red-blooded, kick-butt, take-no-prisoners American engineering at its best,” McGroin said. “It’ll make Boston’s Big Dig look like moving sand in a cat box. Heck, we may even find more bodies than they did! Maybe Hoffa’s there!” McGroin stated that the project would “dwarf any previous engineering project” and give many Corps employees “something to do for the next 16 years.”

The FART project, estimated to cost $600B and to be completed by 2025, will completely straighten, widen, and line 130 river-miles and shorten the distance between New Orleans and Baton Rouge by 35 miles. It will permit supertankers not even on the drawing boards to sail effortlessly up and down the river. These tankers will be over one kilometer long and carry up to 8 times the fluid volume than current ones.

“FART will make my job a helluva lot easier,” said J.R. ‘Craw’ Dattie, long-time river pilot who hailed the project. “That reach of river has more curves than Britney Spears and is even more treacherous,” stated Dattie.

Read more from Water Wired by clicking here.

April 1, 2009 · Filed Under Weird & Wacky Water News

Comments

Leave a Reply