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Show tation. Texas Go. has built four terminals and bulk stor- age plants on the Tennessee; Gulf has built five. Bulk products are brought in by barge to riverside bulk-stor- age plants located in five port cities. They are stored and distributed inland by truck and rail as needed. Gulf supplements this system with pipeline receipts at Chatta- nooga. It also receives packaged petroleum products at a special river terminal at Knoxville. Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp. located in Decatur, Ala., in 1930 on the unimproved river. Work was limited to building only one or two barges at a time, and these frequently could not be launched when built for lack of water depth. Now the yard has a 9-foot navigable connection with the Mississippi waterway system and the Gulf. During World War II, Ingalls and another ship- yard, operated during the war only by Decatur Iron & Steel Co., turned out 135 vessels for the military services. Seagoing 3,600-ton cargo vessels, landing craft, barges, towboats, derrick boats, dredge tenders, and others were built. Guntersville, Ala., is a port of entry to the Southeast for steel, grain, petroleum, and automobiles and is the home port of a Naval Reserve training ship. Not the least important changes are the tourist and sportsmen's attractions Guntersville now offers, including an extensive small-boat harbor. During World War II, the Chemical Warfare Service of the Department of the Army built an extensive arsenal adjacent to Wheeler Reservoir, in the vicinity of Hunts- ville, Ala. During construction, large quantities of sand, gravel, and other construction materials were barged to the site. One of the finest terminals on the Tennessee was built at the arsenal to handle coal used after opera- tions were begun. The plant also received by water many of the heavy-gage steel cylinders used for storage and shipment of products. St. Johns River, Jacksonville To Lake Harney On this stream, near Sanford, two oil-burning steam- electric plants were located, one a 10,000-kilowatt plant of the Florida Power & Light Co., the other a 12,500- kilowatt plant of the Florida Power Corp. The location was selected because it affords an ample supply of cool- ing water, and because it makes possible low-cost water transportation of fuel oil from Jacksonville via the river. WlTHLACOOCHEE RlVER, FLA. At Inglis a. 25,000-kilowatt oil-burning steam-electric plant, constructed by the Florida Power Corp., is served by barge delivery of fuel oil from Tampa Harbor. Tombigbee-Warrior Waterway.-Connects the 32-foot- deep harbor at Mobile with the industrial area around Birmingham. Over 2,000,000 tons of raw materials and products were transported on the waterway in 1948. The Ford Motor Co. Assembly and Distribution Plant on the St. Johns River at Jacksonville, Fla.-Receives auto- mobiles and auto trucks by barge from Norfolk via the Intracoastal Waterway for redistribution throughout its territory. The Pulp AIM of the Southern Kraft Division of the International Paper Co. on Sampit River at the Head of the Georgetown Harbor Channel, Georgetown, S. C.- Consumes about 1,500,000 tons of pulpwood annually. In 1948, nearly 500,000 tons of the pulpwood requirement were delivered to the mill by barge via the Intracoastal Waterway. The Sugar Refinery of the Savannah Sugar Corp. on the Savannah River at Savannah, Ga.-Receives raw sugar from Cuba, Hawaii, the Philippines, and other sources, and ships refined sugar, in part by water on the Intracoastal Waterway. Du Pont Co. Forty-one du Pont manufacturing sites are located di- rectly on or close to the inland and intracoastal waterways of the United States. Five of these plants are equipped with docks suitable for ocean-going vessels; the remainder rely on shallow-draft transport for any water-borne com- merce they employ. In addition to the above 41 sites, the company also operates 5 on the Great Lakes, and materials shipped to some of these Great Lakes plants are handled on portions of the inland waterways. Six of the seven new plant sites developed since 1945 have been located on or close to inland waterways. In the transportation of raw materials and chemical intermediates, 2 million tons are currently being handled on inland waterways, and use of the waterways by this company is increasing. The 2 million tons of du Pont freight moved on inland waterways represent approxi- mately 1.0 percent of all such movements in the United States. Annual freight bills paid for transportation on the inland and intracoastal waterways are approximately 5 percent of du Pont's total annual freight expenditures for rail, high- way, water, and air transportation. The company is an active user of the inland waterways system. The establishment of major manufacturing units on developed waterways will tend to increase use of water transportation wherever and whenever cost and investment differentials exist in favor of water freight hauls. Current studies show that maintenance of existing inland water- ways channels and their developed tributaries will result in expanded use of water transportation by this company. Such expanded use is hampered by certain limitations in the service. The more important of these are discussed in the following paragraphs: Time of transit is generally longer on waterways than on competitive overland routes. Increased inventories are required, and the added investment of such inventories reduces the benefits of savings inherent in water travel. Interruptions of service on inland waterways from floods, fog, drought, and ice also contribute to the necessity for large inventories. Service is completely suspended dur- ing winter months on some northern routes. Continuous operation of manufacturing plants, therefore, requires building up stockpiles of water-borne raw materials dur- ing the periods open to navigation. Supplementary services are more frequently needed for initial collection and final delivery of water-borne freight than in the overland routes, which are equipped with a network of interconnecting facilities. Equipment for bulk chemicals at terminals and at plants located on water's edge is inadequate. Barge loads of materials are large quantities, and the facilities for efficient 430 |