The federal government allocated $10.6 million to install new chamber miter gates, according to Waterways Council Inc., which describes itself as an organization “advocating a modern and well-maintained national system of ports and inland waterways.”
Hornback said the work was scheduled for 2011, adding that it’s unclear whether Sunday’s break will speed that up.
“The risk is very high that a failure of the lock gates will occur, forcing traffic through the auxiliary lock for an extended period, causing huge delays and costs to the towing industry,” the council said in the report last year.
Engineers hope to have the river back open as soon as possible, Hornback said, but an exact time frame was not known.
Some 55 million tons of commodities pass through the Markland Locks each year, according to the Waterways Council. The principal commodity passing through Markland is coal, which fuels numerous electric power plants along the Ohio River, and those plants typically stockpile only about a 30-day supply, the council said.
It was not known what caused the break at the Markland Locks and Dam. Engineers were going to the site, about 65 miles northeast of Louisville, Kentucky, Hornback said.
The lock’s gates are 1,200 feet long and 110 feet wide. A smaller auxiliary lock is 600 feet long and 110 feet wide.
A lock is a section of a waterway, such as a river, that is closed off with gates. Vessels in transit enter the lock and the water level is raised or lowered in order to raise or lower the vessel to adjust to elevation changes.
One of the broken portions is known as a miter gate, Hornback said. The Corps of Engineers, on its Web site, says a miter gate “has two leaves that provide a closure at one end of the lock.” They are so named because the two leaves meet at an angle pointing upstream and resembling a miter joint, the Web site said, referring to a joint meeting at a 45-degree angle, such as the corner of a picture frame.
A public policy organization, in a February 2008 report, graded the locks’ performance as a D, “based primarily upon risk of failure due to unreliability of miter gates.”
A lock break occurred on the Ohio River near Warsaw, Kentucky, on Sunday, stopping barge traffic for several hours as the Army Corps of Engineers investigated.
The incident involved structures, and there were no reports of injuries.
All traffic on the river was stopped in both directions at about 9 a.m. ET, Corps spokesman Todd Hornback said. By 8 p.m., an auxiliary lock was set up to start allowing the half-dozen blocked barges through.
“It’s going to take more time, but we’re keeping the river open tonight,” Hornback said.
The river is a major artery for commodities shipping, with more than 50 million tons of cargo passing through the affected area annually, according to a waterways organization.
Under the current system, the ensemble cannot engage in many activities such as signing independent contracts for commercial performances and get financing from sources other than State funding, Zhang explained.
In many cases, the ensemble needs to submit an application to the supervisory ministries for approval.
“For an overseas performance, the ensemble needs to get approval from the MOC. We need to submit an application to the MOC to get funding and for an investment of 8 million ($1.17 million), we also have to get approval from the Ministry of Finance,” Zhang noted.
After the reform, the ensemble as a company will be able to sign contracts and it will be much easier to get approval, Zhang said.
There are still some regulations that need to be ironed out, Zhang added, “after all, there has never been a similar case before, and it will take some time for the transition to be completed.”
Around 100 cultural organizations nationwide will become companies by end of the year, said Zhang.
The major obstacle to the advancement of the cultural industry is the system, which is mostly made up of government agencies and institutions, Cui Baoguo, director of the Center of Media Management and Economic Studies at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times.
The State is becoming less involved in several culture-related groups, a move that many greet as a step in the right direction.
One of these organizations, the China Oriental Song & Dance Ensemble, a national song and dance troupe, is currently being transformed from a central government affiliated organization under the Ministry of Culture (MOC) to a State-owned company, and expects to get its business license by end of the year, Zhang Xianhui, deputy head of the ensemble, told the Global Times.
The plan includes the accelerated development of key cultural sectors such as creative industries, filmmaking and entertainment, publishing, advertising, cultural exhibitions, and digital animated cartoon sectors.
Cross-region and cross-industry mergers or restructuring are encouraged to speed up industrial integration.
Favorable policies will be granted for export of cultural products and services to expand the foreign culture market, according to the plan.
China’s culture industry in recent years has grown at rates of over 15 percent year-on-year. In some regions, it has even become a pillar of economic growth, Cai Wu, Chinese Minister of Culture, said at a press conference September 14 when the plan was approved.
(File photo)
The government is planning to develop the culture industry through reforms, but major systemic problems remain, industry experts said Sunday.
The plan for boosting the Chinese culture industry released by the State Council Saturday includes major projects for cultural development, which aim at expanding domestic demand, creating new jobs and promoting economic development, said a spokesman for the State Council answering reporter’s questions Sunday.
Advancing stocks narrowly outnumbered those that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 222.3 million shares compared with 251.3 million shares traded at the same point Thursday.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 0.41, or 0.1 percent, to 602.16.
Meanwhile, bond prices traded in a tight range. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, was flat at 3.38 percent from late Thursday.
The dollar mostly fell against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.
Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 2.6 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.6 percent, Germany’s DAX index fell 0.1 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 0.3 percent.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said sales inched up to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 429,000 last month from a downwardly revised 426,000 in July. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a pace of 440,000.
Disappointing quarterly results from BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. are weighing on the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index.
Traders are also watching a meeting of leaders from the world’s 20 largest economies in Pittsburgh for indications of how those governments plan to bring about a strong, sustainable recovery.
In midmorning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 13.30, or 0.1 percent, to 9,720.74.
The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.28, or 0.1 percent, to 1,052.06, and the Nasdaq fell 2.98, or 0.1 percent, to 2,104.63.
Stocks seesawed Friday after weaker-than-expected reports on durable goods orders and new home sales touched off worries about the strength of a recovery in the economy.
Investors were disappointed to hear that durable goods orders unexpectedly fell in August. The second drop in three months shows any rebound in manufacturing is likely to be slow.
The Commerce Department said orders for goods expected to last at least three years fell 2.4 percent, after increasing 4.8 percent in July. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, forecast a 0.5 percent increase.The drop was due primarily to a sharp fall in demand for commercial aircraft, a highly volatile portion of the orders report. Even excluding aircraft and other transportation goods, orders were flat in August. Economists had been predicting a rise 0.5 percent in that number as well