Everything is relative. Looking at the total, some may think that the
cost of the Industrial Canal is large. So it is--compared with the cost
of an irrigation ditch through a 20-acre farm. But comparing the cost
with the wealth it is invested to produce--has already begun to
produce--it dwindles to a mere percentage. And a comparison of
construction costs on the Industrial Canal with similar work done
elsewhere during the same time is very much in favor of the former.
Witness the following figures shown in the books of the engineering
department of the Dock Board:
Dredging, including the canal prism and the excavation of the sites of
the bridge foundations, siphon and lock, averaged .2784 cents a cubic
yard. The highest cost was in the lock section, from which 609,302
cubic yards were excavated at an average cost of .3796 cents a cubic
yard. On the siphon and Florida Walk bridge section, including two
other deep cuts, the 814,919 cubic yards excavated cost an average of
.2607 cents a cubic yard. On the Louisville & Nashville bridge section,
the 1,023,466 cubic yards excavated cost an average of .2363 cents a
cubic yard. From there to the lake, 1,673,787 cubic yards, the average
cost was .2411 cents. Dredging costs were below the original estimates
when labor and supplies were 50 per cent cheaper.
The 90,000 cubic yards of concrete in the lock cost an average of
$22.50 a cubic yard. This includes cost of material, mixing, building
forms, pouring and stripping forms. Mixing and pouring, from the time
the material was handled from the storehouse or pile, averaged $1.20 a
cubic yard. It would be hard to find cheaper concrete on a work of
similar magnitude anywhere, say the engineers.
On the siphon the concrete work cost more, because it was a
subterranean job, with elaborate shaping. The price there was $35 a
cubic yard, in place, including material and form work.
To drive the 17,000 bearing piles and 7,000 traveling piles on which
the lock is floated, cost an average of 15 cents a running foot. This
does not include the cost of the piling.
Construction steel cost .12 cents a pound, and erection around 4 cents.
These were standard prices.
The lock gates, weighing 5,285,000 pounds, cost $845,600, in place.
This does not include opening and closing machinery.
Three of the bascule bridges crossing the Canal, weighing 1,600,000
pounds each, cost $250,000 each, erected. The fourth bridge, near the
lock, weighing 1,000,000 pounds, cost $200,000, erected. This is for
superstructure only--it does not include the foundation.
The emergency dam bridge, weighing 350,373 pounds, and its 108,256
pounds of turning machinery, cost $96,728, in place. Hoisting machinery
cost $40,000 more.
The eight girders of the emergency dam, weighing 90 tons each, at $240
a ton, cost $172,800.
Machinery for working the ten lock gates, the eight filling gates, and
the six capstans--twenty-four 52-horse power electric motors--cost
$21,479, f.o.b. New Orleans.
The plant for unwatering the lock, consisting of one pump with a
capacity of 15,000 gallons a minute, and two with a capacity of 250
gallons each, cost, erected, $11,000.
Total mechanical equipment used on the Industrial Canal weighs 14,500
tons. Its cost, including power-house, electrical connections, etc., is
$1,516,000.
Plant and equipment for building the Canal, including locomotives,
cranes, piledrivers, dredges, tools, etc., cost $781,232. Depreciation,
up to February, 1921, is set at $266,874, leaving a balance of
$514,358, carried as assets. Much of this has already been sold, and
more will be disposed of.
Following are the firms that executed contracts on the Industrial
Canal: